As I began growing older (but the sun was the same in a relative way [yes, I like Pink Floyd too]), my hunger to learn also got bigger. My parents had actively encouraged my curiosity, which may have contributed to this Confucian desire for education. I had always been asking questions of them, and for the most part, they responded to the best of their abilities. Expecting similar responses from worn out and underpaid grade-school teachers was something else altogether. I became known for my reputation to always question stuff. I now realize that the teachers were not very fond of this, but I also recognized at the time that my classmates hated it. However, being the little bourgeois elitist I was, I merely regarded it as the usual contempt for my kind.
I feel it is now important to notify you, dear reader, where I was growing up. Though I was born in Rhode Island and lived perhaps the first year of my life in Philadelphia, my family lived near Hartford, Connecticut for a few years around when my sister was born. After Hartford, we moved again to Livingston, New Jersey (located maybe 10 miles from Manhattan). This information, however, was a necessity as it is imperative to accurately perceive my next big philosophical swing.
We moved. Now, I don’t just mean we jumped up and down a little to jiggle ourselves, I mean we moved. Not to a better house, not to a neighboring town, but to Birmingham, Alabama. Imagine my surprise upon hearing the location of our next move after having been told that it was all “up in the air.” Regardless, we went through with it even through my protests.
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