Eleventh grade. New high school. Literature class with Mrs. P. Smith who knew her literature and expected everyone else to know it as well. There was the required Shakespeare that not many are able to escape. To this day, I find Macbeth’s Soliloquy to be a very dramatic piece of literature that I would love to recite with high drama. Anything less than a dramatic rendering seems an insult to this particular piece.
Then came the big surprise in the small package. The option or the assignment to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. At the time I read the book, Angelou was already an established author so she was already down the road of success when I “discovered” her. Reading Maya Angelou write of her story in Stamps, Arkansas allowed me to relate to her life growing up as a child in The South, navigating the idiosyncrasies of Southern living (or during her time, Southern surviving). That may have been one of the first times in literature that I actually related to what someone wrote without them having to over explain it. Yet, for a story so accessible and familiar, there was still so much more to learn. So much with which to find awe. There was a bold willingness to try new things that made her my first hero. The limitations of her environment were by no means a limitation to the possibilities that she saw in the future. Maya Angelou blazed a trail in her life that was not necessarily comparable to the fame-seekers of today. The world, in my opinion, is greater for it. Inspiration can come from many sources. Although I was writing prior to attending the second high school, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings proved to be an early inspiration to continue writing. Don’t just take my word for how good of a book this is, buy it! Or, borrow it from the library or from someone who owns it. Or Kindle it. Or “liberate” it from someone’s bookshelf to be definitely returned at a future date.