Coming-Of-Age

[Kire]

Hey, time to tell those experiences you had growing up that would be turned into a movie starring McCauley Caulkin or the Sixth Sense twerp.

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When I was really young and found out I would die one day, I cried all night. I hadn't been fed the "eternal life" story yet either. It was quite horrifying to my psyche at the time.

When I learned Santa wasn't real, it was mildly depressing, but I wasn't shocked. It was more of "oh, ok." The days that followed, though, made me start to question the existance of God.

I got into my first fight w/ my best friend in 3rd grade. I started out w/ turning kicks to his stomach and back while I kept my distance, he rushed in, I put him in a headlock, then jumped and landed on my butt (a bulldog for those who follow wrestling). He got up crying holding his neck, so I rushed in and elbowed him in the nose, then pretty much spine bustered him (fireman's carry to slamming him on the ground). He did get a few shots in too, but I was too focused to notice. It's then I realized I had a good tolerance for pain, at least a bit of talent for fighting, and it gave me a primal rush.

Ironicly, this scared me a lot and made me turn the other cheek in middle school when I should've been fighting back. The most I did is once when standing up to a bully, he punched me in the stomach, wrenched my arm behind my back and I just smiled at him. He didn't bother me after that.

I met one of my best friends in High School because of relating to Final Fantasy 7. We would talk about it at lunchtime.

I played LOTS of basketball growing up and dreamed of playing in the NBA. I played all through Junior High and High School, and was the 6th man (starter occasionally), and then for some reason wasn't picked for Varsity. My guess is a continuing vendetta between the coach and my brother, who was captain when he graduated and left on bad terms. This changed my life path as I started drawing again, started doing poetry again, and started writing again.

Graduating High School was incredibly unceremonious to me. It signified nothing...at least to me.

[Owl of Parliament]

I learned Santa wasn't real when my mom got mad at me and told me he was fake, she then started laughing hysterically.

I played video games my whole life, the first game I ever got was Mario Bros. I remember being more impressed by the fact that you could control what was going on, on the TV than the actual game.

My best friend was a kid who lived down the street.

My first girlfriend was a girl who lived down the street too, she just told me one day that I was her boyfriend and that we were going to get married one day. I just said "Okay" and that was that. I was extremely young at the time, some of the more perceptive of you probably already gathered that.

I first kissed a girl when I was 11 playing spin the bottle, I kissed nine girls that night, I felt pretty good about it.

The first time I--Na... Thats as far as I'm going to go with that.

In the eight grade I was a huge magic the gathering fan.

I went to a high school where there were only two differnt cliques, those who smoked reefer and those who didn't smoke reefer.

I graduated high school when I was called into the guidance office about what my plans for college were. It was just after first semester exams, I remember the guidance counselor said: "It looks like you're going to pass everything this semester, you'll have 36 credits regardless of how you did on the exams so you've already graduated, but I think you should stay on this second semester." I remember being so excited I wasn't even thinking about college, I politely got out of his office as fast as I could. I walked past some people hanging around outside the school, I told them I graduated. Someone said: "How is that possable, you never even showed up." I replied: "I don't know, but, I don't know, just tell everyone I'm never coming back." I took one last look at the school and walked home. It was such a beautiful day that day too. I probably should have listened to the guidance counselor though, I think about college now and again. I'll do it one day, I never really planned to go right after high school.