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What year was it when you were my age? I turned 11 at the end of 1991, and I was in sixth grade that year.
What did you do for fun? There was this hill a few blocks from my house that was completely uninhabited, although the town's water towers were up there. At one point, someone had built a very large, fancy house that had burned down, so I spent a lot of time playing in the ruins. I called it Dalben's Castle (after the character in the Prydain books). I also liked to ride my bike on the trails in and around town.
What did you worry about? Honestly, I don't remember worrying about anything for the first half of sixth grade, but then we moved to Arizona in March. I was upset because I would lose all of my friends and there was a boy I really liked who was starting to show signs of liking me. That move pretty much ended my childhood, because instead of open hills to play on, Arizona had suburbs and sidewalks and asphalt, and it wasn't safe to wander all around town. And it was way too hot.
What did you like about yourself? I liked that I was a tomboy who was a better football player than most of the boys in my class. I was the one who convinced them to let girls play football with them during P.E. (we usually had free time, as long as we were doing something athletic. Girls usually played jumprope, which I thought was boring.) I also organized a game I called "professional rail wrestling" at lunch time, where the teams fought for control of the inside rail on the ramp to our classroom. After that game got banned, I started a grade-wide game of tag during lunch, which was great because I was fast and agile.
Not like? I hated that I started puberty earlier than most of my classmates, even though I was a year younger to begin with. I lost my speed and agility from those changes, and never got them back.
What was your first date, where and with whom? Well, technically I wasn't allowed to date until I was 16, although my mother made an exception for Prom. So the first official date was Prom when I was 14, although the boy and I had been "dating" for a good six months before that. Mostly we just hung out at school and during band trips, and sometimes he came over for dinner at my house.
When do you remember being the happiest when you were a teenager?
If by teenager, you mean when I still lived at home, it was probably my freshman and sophomore years of high school. I had a boyfriend, and a lot of great friends that were two years ahead of me, and it was a lot of fun. When they all graduated, I was kind of lost. The rest of high school was really more anticipation of college than anything else.
If you're counting all the years from 13-19, I was definitely happiest my freshman year of college. I remember the glorious freedom that first night in the dorm, when my mother left and I realized that I could do anything I wanted to. I went out to a dance on the mall with a friend (actually, the first boyfriend mentioned above, although we were no longer together), and it was great. I had had a similar amount of freedom back when I was 11 and roaming the hills, and had missed its loss ever since. Adult responsibility caught up soon enough, but boy that first year of college was great.
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