A deeper point of view

Around the 7th grade I thought I wasn't normal. Everyone else in my class groaned when we were assigned essays or reports usually due within the next two weeks.  I was thinking about going to the library and researching for something I knew the other students wouldn't think to write about.  I remember back when we had to do a written report about the Great Depression. When everyone else did subjects on the stock market crash or bread lines, I found a way to slide that on over towards the Harlem Renaissance.  From there I slid a little further over to a poet named Langston Hughes. He lived in Harlem during the Great Depression and wrote about things he saw going on every day.  He could draw these eloquent pictures in my mind which took me with him on a walk through Harlem during the rhythmic & rebellious 1920's.  I saw the prejudice and hunger people faced on a daily basis but I could also see the 10 cent rent parties/Friday night fish fry thrown in the landlord's honor. I heard the beautiful delicious sounds of uninhibited jazz music he listened to in the tiny clubs that he hung out in till the wee hours of dawn.  He was my first influence in creative writing. Through him I learned to write a report that took the reader back through time the way I saw it. I know the Great Depression was plagued with poverty and drought but how many times could you hear the same story told the same way?  I enjoyed digging a little deeper in order to tell my own version of the same story with a little jazz to brighten it up.