Malcolm X's "Literacy Behind Bars" Response

After reading Malcolm X's "Literacy Behind Bars" I found myself relating his experiences to some of my own.  In this essay, Malcolm discusses how he taught himself to read while in prison, and how his new-found literacy set him free.  He taught himself to read and write by copying down each and every page of the dictionary, and then studying those words.  His complete dedication and motivation to learn to read and write allowed him to reach his goal.  He exhibited this passion by reading for 15 hours each day, even after lights out, sneaking around his cell to get some light jumping to and from bed whenever the guards came by.  I had a somewhat similar experience when I was learning how to play guitar.  When I first started learning to play guitar about 14 to 15 years ago, I was terrible - as you would expect.  However, every chance I got, I sat down with a guitar chord dictionary, and a scale dictionary, playing every form of every chord I could see.  At first, these mangled and muted chords sounded horrible - I couldn't reach all the right frets and didn't have the right finger posture, but after playing them over and over again, I was able to learn all the chords and scales I possibly could.  I sat down for hours at a time, not even breaking for food or bathroom.  I went so far as to plug headphones into my amp, so I could play after my parents thought I was asleep.  I had a similar dedication to learning guitar that Malcolm X had for learning to read and write.  I found it interesting how my life and experiences were so similar to such a well-known activist and speech giver.