“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of…

Recently, I came across a piece I wrote when I was 17. It felt like I have changed completely, and not at all. While I have experienced so much life since then, the passions I expressed back then remain at the core of who I am today. My essay was inspired by Bertrand Russell’s “What…