Caitlyn Benedik & Michael Moore – Take Your Own Risk at Reading
Caitlyn Benedik, 17, and Michael Moore, 18, are defying the image of the “typical reader” and maybe even the typical high school senior.
Caitlyn is the captain of girls’ varsity basketball at Arnold High School in Panama City Beach. In 2015, her team had a great year through Caitlyn’s positive leadership.
Michael’s sport is football. He plays offense and right tackle defense for Arnold’s football team, the Marlins.
Both are excellent athletes. And both are avid readers. “In the summer I usually read five or six books and I manage to read two or three books during the school year. I read many genres; fiction, autobiographies, it really depends,” says Caitlyn. Books are giving her a clear direction. “I have read many military-based autobiographies and am considering a military career and am pursuing a West Point Academy appointment.”
Michael reads even more. “Recently, I have been going through up to three books a week. I read mostly fiction and fantasy,” he says.
We asked them to talk about a book they recently read but, rather than a recent read, they both preferred to talk about books that left them deeply impressed.
For a school assignment, Caitlyn chose to read Maya Angelou’s first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She read the book in two weeks, which is longer than it would usually take her, because she had to analyze the book for school and write an essay at the same time.
“It was an amazing book,” Caitlyn exclaims. “I picked it out of a list of 200 others. I had heard about the author but never read one of her books. It is an autobiography, one of seven books she wrote. She describes living with her family when she was a young girl. She was abused by her stepfather as a child and it made her stop speaking for a year and a half. She spent time living with different family members after that. In the book she says that her life felt like a nightmare. Later in her life, she came to embrace her role in society and was one of the most accomplished women of her time.”
The book’s strong message has had an impact on Caitlyn’s perception. “It was very enlightening to see how life was back then and how a young woman had to deal with racism. It breaks my heart thinking that people go through such experiences. I learned from the book that bad things will happen. You have to decide what to do with it, to embrace the things that happened and learn from them and let them make you a better person.”
Michael’s favorite genre is fantasy and fiction. “The books I read help me to detach from the world and dive into another” he said.
Michael started reading as a boy and read Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin when he was 11 years old. “I could not really appreciate the entire story back then, I was probably too young to understand a lot of the details. I remember thinking how the author realized the racial differences. He made a statement how barbaric black people were treated. He was originally from up north and traveled to the deep south. He decided to see for himself how black people were treated and spoke to a doctor who prescribed pills for him that darkened his skin color. I remember not understanding some of the words when I was younger.”
Michael remarks he read more when he was younger and school activities and football practice keep him busy today.
Both Caitlyn and Michael agree that they prefer having books in their hands to reading them on a device. “There is something about having the weight in your hands and flipping pages,” says Michael. Caitlyn agrees and adds “You probably get more connected to a paper book.”
Michael is the best book ambassador as speaking about books comes straight from the heart, “Reading books has been a magical thing. It has inspired me to write poetry. I would tell others, don’t be tabooed by other people’s opinion who say reading books is a chore and boring. Take your own risk at reading. You might find something that you did not know you would love.”