What is Scibona’s Intellectual Home?

An intellectual home is an intimate place, meant for one person (or more if preferred) to create and find peace and comfort to achieve their best academic work. It is crafted from the personal mind and heart to bring ideas to life for a better experience while studying. Salvatore Scibona wrote a short story called ” Where I learned To Read” , published by The New Yorker magazine on June 13 & 20, 2011. He lets us dive back in his life to inform us of how his life changed before some struggles he faced. Scibona always had the TV on all day and described it as it was “singing like a siren in the crowded house” (paragraph 2). According to Scibona, reading is very important for him to do, even though he couldn’t understand it nor correctly know how to read being in the 11th grade. But it made him happy. He even copied out the first paragraph of a book by Annie Dillard on his bedroom’s dormer wall. Reading took part in his inspiration in life. He seems to have been a very simple and stress less kind of person. This can be proven when he is given a college brochure by one of her classmates. That brochure gave the information needed for Scibona to be interested in his education and future college. There were no electives, no tests, no grades, and even no textbooks. Such an attractive college for his interests. That college was St. John’s College. It interested him so much that he would scrap all his plans just to attend that college, considering it a vocation. That simple brochure was a life-changing moment for his life and upcoming future. He spoils into his future and is now in St. John’s. During his senior year, he made hanging out with his friends on the weekends part of his schedule. This is very understandable as having a social life is very impactful for many if not all of us. He even had drinks with them. Therefore, Scibona’s intellectual home is all about being picky and simple for himself. But being lazy, egotistical, and a dejected teen-ager were all part of this as well. Having what can be considered as lonerist traits. It was all as easy as learning how to read that took him to be successful.