staff reader of the month

STAFF READER OF THE MONTH: Ms Jacqueline Foley

A recent interview with Ms Foley has unravelled her profound love for reading. She is, thus far, Nagle College’s most avid reader in the faculty. She frequents the school library, continually borrowing boxes of books and returning for more. She is often caught simultaneously reading and vacuuming at times, catching any spare moment to indulge in a good book.

This love for reading became evident in her childhood as she was a veracious reader. She refused to have her reading restricted and simply read the books assigned to her. She chose to read ahead of her peers. She searched for books in local libraries that were beyond her assumed reading level. She eventually discovered the book Andra by Louis Lawrence which was influential towards her future readings. Her reaction to it had been “Wow, the possibilities”. From here her love for science fiction novels grew monumentally.

A fixation on time and travel became apparent as she reflected on her interaction with books and the impact they had on herself. She is a traveller of time and places. Reading has guided her to venture the world and experience what it has to offer; “... I see monuments. I see history being done at the time. I can look at temples. I can eat the food. I can try to interact with locals… It's just reading gives me the opportunity to go and see places that I can't travel to because it exists in the past or the future. But it really lead me to an appreciation of other cultures and other countries”

However, she’d really like to become a time traveller “I would like to experience everything at different phases of time.” Her admiration of time and the world became most apparent as she shared her visions for the future. If she were to ever write a book she says it would most likely feature an optimistic reality with “more positive possibilities” that are different from the depressing novels that displayed dystopian futures. She hopes we can find ways to fix the problems we face today. Her book would capture “possibilities we haven't yet thought of”. “It’s up to me to make my future, or the future of anybody, better if I can. It’s up to me to have a positive future”

Ms Foley leaves you with the following;

For her colleagues: a book suggestion that includes time travelling, the past, magicians, Egyptian gods, the Underworld, villains, and jumping through time holes.

Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.

And a personal quote;

“The future is yet to be”

-by Andrea Abreu, Year 11

17 March 2019