It's a meme-ish day, it seems

[ratherastory]

I stole this from elsewhere_kels, same way I stole the previous meme.

On LiveJournal, we often think we're close, but really, we know less about each other than we like to think. So I want you to ask me something you would like to know about me, something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about, or something you've always been curious about but have never asked, or something completely silly that you'd like me to answer for kicks. No limits on the range of questions, either: ask me anything you want to know about, whether it's a fannish opinion or trivia about my real life or my thoughts on events in the offline world.

Comments

[elsewhere-kels.livejournal.com]

Tell me about your childhood? One of your favourite memories and one of your least favourite memories?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, man.

I had an awesome childhood, actually. I grew up on a dead-end street with a bunch of kids my age. We lived in each other's pockets, spent all our time running around the street and the two alleys behind the houses (conveniently walled off). We climbed trees and went over fences, played cops and robbers and tag and soccer and street hockey, raced our bicycles and learned how to roller skate together.

My parents were thrilled beyond words to have me. They couldn't have kids, and it took years for them to be able to adopt. So they took me on adventures to the local park, read to me, played music with me (well, records, anyway: my mother is tone deaf), and encouraged me to be as creative as I wanted to be. I don't remember ever getting punished as a child, which my friends never understood: punishment for me consisted of my parents telling me they were "very disappointed" and then demanding I explain myself, which was worse than a knife to the gut.

In the summers when I was really small I had two different friends whose parents owned huge lake properties in the Laurentians (the whole lake, I'm talking), and so I often spent a good part of my summers there. When I was older I went to summer camp, first regular "sleep-away" camp, and one summer to music camp.

The only part of my childhood that was not as fun was my last few years of elementary school. Some new kids arrived in the small school where I was, and the whole atmosphere changed. Suddenly kids who'd been my friends (or at least neutral) turned on me, and I was badly bullied for three years. It started out mild, but by the time three years had gone by I was being physically beaten as well as verbally abused, by groups of kids. It was hard, but eventually we all left for different high schools, and things all worked out for me afterward. I'm just not keen on talking to these people ever again, especially when they message me on Facebook. ;)