One Question Changed the Trajectory of My Life

Being perceived as an anomaly in my own family is a tricky predicament. Outsiders see my associations and mindsets to be quite different from the people who raised me when they meet them. At the present time, the disadvantage is no one can meet my Oma (German Grandmother) who I spent the bulk of my formative years with.

A colleague and I were reflecting on career paths, life decisions, waiting, and life. We both remarked how different we were from our siblings who we grew up within the same house and with the same parents.

Then the conversation moved to my love of asking a great question. I love to ask a person what their first reading memory is. I clarify by indicating it can be a positive or a negative one, just the first one they can recall. The reaction and answer is either a dramatic story of happiness or a dreaded and horrific story of a novel or text that teachers made them read that they hated. It is ALWAYS a strong emotion — passion vs hate. It is fascinating to me.

The connection of my thinking being so different from my family and reading is one I have never made in any of the self-reflection I do. (There is a lot).

The weekend before, I had met this same friend for coffee in a quaint little cafe in Chicago down the street from several independent bookstores. We, of course…