For a person growing up as an introvert and nerd, communicating and expressing myself was a mojor challenge. Not to say the least that this path also left me underdeveloped in terms of vocabulary and language skills. But even then I showed flashes of having a sense of humor. When my english teacher  of sixth grade was explaining complex and simple words in class, on reaching friendship he said "what making friends leads to having" lead to my immediate response "Having ships?". In our final term in ninth grade we were given the opportunity as a group to write short plays or  presentation  or whatever we chose  and present it to the rest of the class. Needless to say that I wrote everything for our group (creativity or meeting a new challenge was never a problem for me) but I was terrified to stand up in front of my class. So I approached it the only way I knew how, I practiced day and night. Not only was it a success but it raised my grade from the regular C+ I had been getting the last two years to a overall year's grade of A-.

Then, I went back into my shell. That is until my graduation year (twelth grade or leaving certificate in Ireland, where I graduated from). I was fortunate to have a creative classmate who also made a living selling secondhand books over the weekend in Dublin's city centre. We exchanged our skills (I excelled in science and mathematics), while he in the arts. After our finals, I would regularly borrow books from him and scavange them over the summer, as if I had been starved for years. Initially it took me 4-5 days to read a book, but by the end I was finishing them in 12-18 hours (sometimes I found it impossible to go to sleep until I had a finished a book). Most of the titles I have mentioned in my favorite books, I read them then or over the next two years. I have never looked back since. Certainly watching how the Harry Potter series did so well,  brought back some of those memories and reminded me of the importance of introducing reading at a young age.