I spent some of last summer getting reacquainted with some people I hadn't seen in some time. As I answered the questions they asked me, I realized that I was telling them nothing different than they would hear from any other person, and their attempts to get to know me had fallen flat. I found myself wishing that they would ask me something like what I was reading and what I thought of it. But nobody did. And I realize now that that's what I have wished all my life. Fourteen years old, in school, I found myself bored to tears with the things the people around me were talking about, and wishing somebody would express an interest in some of the things that I had rolling around in my brain. The really humiliating times were when I spoke up and tried to spark an interest.
   I waited impatiently to join the world of grown-ups.
   HA! Here I am. The more things change.......

Dedicated, by the way, to my dear friend Lauren. Hang in there, Baby.