I'm Batman! Or, What is the Norm?

Last Friday I had an amazing luncheon with one of my few readers that knows my true identity, kind of like how Alfred knows Bruce Wayne is really Batman. While discussing graduate school programs over baked brie, pondering my future as a public health worker, she mentioned that in this blog, I  don't talk much about myself as a person. She used some sort of fancy word from philosophy to describe how I should approach it, however, it being almost a week ago and I having the memory capacity of a Post-It note, am going to have to wing it.

Growing up, I don't think anyone would have pegged me for what  Cosmo charmingly called a "super predator" author of this blog. I grew up in a lower middle class family in Maine, which in and of itself is a mostly rural area. My siblings are all vastly older than me so growing up was a lot like being an only child. I was (and still am) very imaginative, was always a good student, but very introverted and shy.

I was a good student, and started amassing a large collection of books very young. I was a kid that loved to read and was inspired by music, art, and literature, when most of my friends were obsessed with New Kids on the Block, I, well, I was too, but I was also obsessed with Rachmaninoff and Bach (still obsessed with Bach). My parents were not terribly cultured, although it was my Mom's piano classics tape I got hold of and never gave back. It was also watching my Mom reading all the time that really encouraged my own love of books.

So, let's fast forward to the high school years. Dun-dun-dunnnn. I was self-conscious about my body. I wore bras that were too small to bind down my breasts that were rapidly getting bigger and bigger. I wore baggy clothes to cover them. I had horrible acne and hated (still do) washing my hair. I had my core group of friends and was by no means popular. I hung out with the other middle class kids, envied the kids with money with silent loathing, and shunned the poorer kids, the white trash, as it were. I had close guy friends but no boyfriends. By the time I graduated high school (with honors, mind you) I had never been kissed or even groped by a guy.

We, as a society, have preconceived notions about nature vs. nurture, especially when dealing with sexuality. I wasn't abused, I had a happy childhood, and while my family wasn't an excessively hugging family, I don't have a daddy complex. I didn't even lose my virginity until I was 27.  I'm intelligent, still quite introverted, and am as likely to be seen thumping down the road in my car with a Maria Callas CD in my stereo as a Tool album. I still live in what I affectionately refer to as The Rural-- Central Maine-- and work for a thankless evil big telecommunications company.

So, where do I fit in the stereotypes? I don't.