My earliest memory of learning to read was sitting on my uncle's lap and reciting the story of Cinderella, turning the pages as the words ended, but fooling him into believing that I was actually reading it when I had memorized it. He was in awe of my ability to read at the age of four and I was so proud. I began having my mom read to me the same stories over and over again so I could memorize them, to trick more people, to become the awesome child. As an adult I realize that this was a way to learn how to read because I was memorizing what the words looked like, too.
However, my next memory of big moments in reading was the series of Anne of Green Gables, in which the main character is highly dramatic and thus began my diva nature and performance tendencies in storytelling. Other influences were my mother always reading romance novels that I was not allowed to see the pages of because once I'd asked what "quivering loins" were, and auto mechanic books because that's all my father read and in order to be close to him wanted an understanding of his vocabulary to have dialogue with him.
So when I began writing poems in high school about how sex was like engines, that oils are checked and filters are necessary, revving the engine in park is like foreplay, and going too fast is dangerous, no one else understood that the romance and mechanic books had led to my detentions. I was just making accurate metaphors that no one appreciated. Until now.
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