Libraries Were My First Home in America
- Maria de Asis
- Feb 13
- 2 min read
I don’t remember much about my life before moving to the U.S. I was three years old when my family immigrated from the Philippines to Chicago, and my earliest memories of this country aren’t of playgrounds or classroom: they’re of libraries.
For a child who didn’t have much, libraries gave me everything. We were low-income: my dad attended community college to become a nurse and my mom worked nights at the hospital. I was the only girl out of my siblings, and when my brothers were busy shooting each other with NERF guns, I was nose deep in a book. At the library, I could borrow as many as I wanted. I devoured picture books, chapter books, and anything I could understand, even if I didn’t know all the words yet. Each visit was a new adventure, a new lesson, a new way to piece together the world I was growing up in. My earliest memory included my dad scolding me for wanting to spend too much time at the library. Can you believe that?
It was in the library that I first began to understand America. Not just through history books or textbooks, but through fiction. I learned about friendship from Charlotte’s Web, classic middle America life through Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and learned about the kind of kid I shouldn’t be from No, David. These books didn’t just teach me English- they taught me empathy, history, and the complexities of a country I was learning to call home.
As I grew older, the library continued to be my refuge. It was where I realized that knowledge is power and that power should be for everyone: not just those who can afford it.
That’s why it breaks my heart to see libraries under attack today. Whether it’s budget cuts, closures, or book bans, these spaces that once gave me a sense of belonging are being threatened. Book banning, in particular, is something I cannot wrap my head around. The books that shaped me are the same books being pulled from shelves. When we take away books, we take away voices, perspectives, and opportunities for young people to see themselves and others in new ways.
Libraries are more than just buildings filled with books. They are safe havens, classrooms, community centers, and for kids like me, a second home. If we care about education, about equality, about giving every child a fair shot at understanding the world around them, we must fight for libraries. We must protect them, fund them, and stand against censorship. Because every child, no matter where they come from, deserves the chance to learn, to dream, and to find a home in the pages of a book.
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