When I was a young boy my classmates at school knew what I was going to be when I grew up before I knew. When it was my turn to tell the class, they answered for me: "Scientist! He's going to be a scientist!" They reached this conclusion, I believe, by the following logic. (1) I could read better than anyone else in the class. (2) Therefore I must be smart. (3) The smartest people turn out to be scientists. (4) Therefore he's going to turn out to be a scientist. While their logic had some errors, their conclusion turned out to be correct. I did become a scientist.
I don't believe the other kids knew that I had my first microscope and my first chemistry set before I was nine years old. But they might've known about my "How-and-Why Wonder Books" if I brought one of them to school. I got some of them from school book fairs, and some at the local shopping center in Levittown (later Willingboro), New Jersey. I remember books on rocks, and coins, and dinosaurs, and stars. No doubt reading these books sparked my curiosity and instilled a sense of wonder that would guide me as I grew up.
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