Dad is an ex-kibbutznik, so the word socialism and Marxism were common vocab around the house. Around the age of 10 I got curious and found the only Marxist book in the library: Socialism Utopian and Scientific. Then in junior high i read State and Revolution (librarian told me to put it back and to read Ayn Rand instead lol). Before that I had thought of myself as vaguely socialist but what I really meant was universal social welfare programs under capitalism.

It took me until high school to realize that socialism wasn't an abstract theory that one upholds that helps analyze the world better than the capitalist-liberal theories.

Around the time of zimmerman murdering Trayvon Martin I realized that without actually analyzing and engaging with the society around me and its own contradictions Marxism was a corpse. I took more of an interest in the history + present of the Black Liberation Movement and that helped me realize that I wasn't "the only one" who had these ideas. In particular the Ferguson and later Baltimore uprisings really sharpened my perspective on the official ideologies and approaches towards social change.

Then those movements challenged me to be more critical of my own relationship to Palestine and the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. I had been vaguely anti-American in particular because of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars—but I still supported the national mythos of the US and Israel. I broke with that around sophomore year high school.