English was one of my favorite subjects in school, especially when it came to assignments involving colorful use of vocabulary and creative expression.  I wasn’t a big reader (I’m still not), as I generally preferred to entertain myself by creating my own content, whether that meant writing short stories or keeping a journal.  Still, I recognized the importance of many of my assignments which included reading, digesting, comprehending, and analyzing great literary works.  Sometimes I’d connect personally with a book or poem, which added to the reward.  Parts of Hermann Hesse’s Demian seemed both taboo and thrilling when I had first read it for humanities class as a high school senior.  That book was my choice on a list of possibilities in the pre-internet age, so I had known nothing about it before reading it.  It was a pivotal moment for me in understanding that not everything was black-and-white as my conservative parents would have had me believe.

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