magusdesign007

I grew up a fat kid, and not a happy fat kid, I was unjustly ashamed of my body, my size, my appearance, and well hell I was different from everyone else I knew growing up in that Jersey town. I didn't have a favorite sports team, i didn't like playing army, or war games of any sort. I liked to draw, and paint, sing, write stories, play with clay. For the longest time i thought I was dysfunctional, I thought i was a misfit. What's more, i have twin brother who is EXACTLY the prototypical boy, with so deeply ingrained a love for the NY Mets that you would believe Dwight Gooden was his father and a certain laissez faire attitude toward emotion that seems prevalent in the misogynistic culture or lack there of that is, blue collar Jersey. My one saving grace was my mother, she did as best she could in an Irish Catholic town with four other kids, to nurture my difference, while still not wholly understanding it. When I got angry she put a pencil in my hand, when i cried and my brothers or father told me to walk it off she talked to me so i could tell her why i was sad, and once when I was 11 years old she woke me up on a Saturday morning, and out of the blue said "Do you wanna get your ear pierced?" I had never considered it before, but you know what, HELL YEAH I wanted to get my ear pierced!!!! She made being different not feel like a bad thing when I was with her. She made me feel okay about being the artsy kid, and never asked me to explain it or pretend to be something else.

I'm much older and perhaps wiser than that 11 year old boy who woke up with an earring, but meeting some of the people I've met here on this site, in this community makes me feel like that happy bloody eared boy all over again.

Vive la difference!!!!

You are all precious to me, and I thank you