By Anela Tiro, YES 2015-2016, Bosnia and Herzegovina, hosted by American Councils in Chaska, MN

While I was growing up, I had the chance to be surrounded by people who enjoyed having open discussions about various topics, but, often, I would not have enough facts to keep the discussion moving; someone would always have better facts than I did. When a baby begins to crawl and wants to touch everything, that's just the beginning: the process of discovery goes from most simple to most abstract things and thoughts. In my opinion, the best way of improving the speed of discovery is through reading. Through reading, we reach a higher intellectual level, which helps us make the right decisions and makes our perspectives so much broader. 

In general, I believe that people need to discover new things in order to shape critical thinking and make this world a better place. That is why I decided to create a public bookshelf - a resource for personal and intellectual development that is open to everyone - in my home city of Mostar. The American Corner in Mostar and the YES program helped me turn this goal into a reality. The public bookshelf is now open, and works on the principle that if one wants to take a book, he/she simply donates another book to the shelf. In this way, an ever-changing variety of books is always available, and no one needs money in order to access this resource. It is my hope that the shelf might bring new ideas to others, and will spark a fire in someone's deepest thoughts.