I think my Junior High was located somewhere in a lower ring of Hell. It's really the only explanation for the behaviour of the teachers, principal and the other students. Kids used to throw rocks at my head during recess and Mr. Principal told me that it was
my fault for being different. I would rather have died than been something I wasn't to please other people.
And then came High School. I was accepted into an Arts program - one of 52 applicants selected from about 700. It was as though I had been catapulted straight from The Inferno into Paradise.
I spent half the day in dance class or drama, and the other half in academic heaven. I adored my history, philosophy, biology and English teachers and I looked forward to spending time in class.
Teachers praised me. They told me about ways I could get involved in community theatre, or get my writing published.
And my friends!
They would bring musical instruments to school and at lunch time we'd write songs like "Hot Tub Of Love".
Four of us girls dressed up as Goddesses for Halloween; Artemis (we even made a silver bow, arrows and quiver for her), Athena (My soul-friend Ashley), Aphrodite (Me) and Demeter.
A handful of us spent our Wednesday nights LARPing. I would skip class to go with my friend Signy to The Only Cafe, where we would drink Diet Coke and I would watch people play pinball and smoke and we would talk about politics and Tori Amos B-sides and gossip about everyone.
At any given time at least one of us girls would have bottle-red hair. Sometimes most of us did. Everyone in our group looked out for everyone else. We'd trade books and do Tarot and Rune readings for one another. No one cared that I was gay.
Ashley had me model nude for her Photography independent study. I'd never felt more beautiful.
Two of us wrote good poetry, all of us wrote bad poetry, we were all doing art and one of us was writing plays.
None of us took ourselves seriously.
It was the best time of my life.
Edited by: Willowmere at: 1/6/03 7:01:08 pm