From Self authoring 1 – Before college and Hitchhiking overview

1.6-My summer reading before college, including On the Road and The Aims of Education

I always say it was summer, but actually February to September 1962. I made a list of books I wanted to read, mostly classic novels, for “background”, before I started my English Major at Stanford. I can’t remember now much of what it was, but I sat in my room mostly all day and didn’t talk to my mom hardly at all. I would emerge for dinner when Martin Williams’ theme song came on the jazz station my dad turned on when he got home. I read the 2 books assigned for al incoming freshmen, Whitehead’s “The Aims of Education” and Conrad’s “The Secret Sharer and The Heart of Darkness” I also read “On the Road”, which totally blew me away. It seemed like an intense vision of life calling to me. All the other books felt like a professional duty. Even if they provided moments of pleasure, they didn’t grab my life.

1B. ANALYSIS OF EFFECTS OF EXPERIENCES

Prompt
Please outline how this experience has shaped your life and contributed to making you who you are today. How has the experience changed your view of other people? Of the world? Write approximately 1,000 characters.

1.6 My summer reading before college, including On the Road
How it shaped my life was in the difference between my reactions to the “background” list and my reaction to On the Road. It was the difference between what you do to fit with a culture you feel is false vs. what awakens your sense of vision, mission, and calling. I tried to do Stanford but really needed to hitch hike and jump off the deep end and thumb my nose at the conventional values. On the Road gave me a model. Who I am today is someone who tried that and dealt with the long life of consequences and navigating through the twists and turns of the several decades that followed .