[luxinterior]

I've been painfully quiet and shy my whole life around people who aren't my close friends or family. In elementary school, I was one of the most advanced students, if not the most advanced student. I've always read a lot. In the past, things like basketball and art were very serious hobbies for me, when now they are just things I do for fun. My two best friends in gradeschool were twins.

By the time 5th grade rolled around, and for the remainder of gradeschool, I was the weird kid in class. I don't remember much about that time because I was not especially self-aware. Even though I was "smarter" than a lot of kids in my grade, I had not yet begun to care about things like my appearance, and even though I liked having boys as friends, I couldn't honestly say that I ever had so much as a crush on any of them. Whenever I was asked about it among my girl friends, I would just make something up to appear normal. To this day, I have yet to feel that way toward anyone I know, with the exception of my 12th grade history teacher, and that is something that I have been trying to suppress by telling myself that he is off-limits, for reasons of age and marital status. So yes, this area of my life could be considered a "problem area".

My parents split up the summer before my 8th grade year. I spent all of my time listening to music in my basement. I started playing the guitar, which is something that did not go as planned. I still take lessons and play, although barely, but I am obviously missing out on whatever makes guitar players want to practice all the time and get better. In other words, I do not care.

My first two years of high school were terribly awkward. I had no close friends, though I tried harder than I normally would to make some. One friend that I have now (my best friend) would later tell me that I intimidated people, and still do. Another friend, who I don't consider to be a friend anymore, told me that everyone at school thought I was "cool," which doesn't make sense, because again, a significant lack of friends does not equal "cool."

During junior year of high school, I discovered I had a knack for writing. I owe all of that to Creative Writing class. The semester after that I took Film Appreciation, taught by the same person. Both classes together seemed tailored to my interests. They helped me discover talents that I always thought I lacked. Most of the classes I'll be taking my first semester of college are a direct result of taking those two classes in high school.