proteanme

1975 – 7th grade at Eastwood Jr High

Originally uploaded by proteanme

I was telling MTB that I taught myself to do a loud dude whistle when I was in 7th grade. The kind of whistle where you stick your fingers in your mouth and push them up against your curled back tongue and then you blow and its incredibly loud. Some people can do it one handed. I use all 4 fingers. Its something I do at rock shows or watching sports. I think I even pulled a few out for my niece’s volleyball games, which were not usually ruckus affairs. It’s fun to do and it makes me feel grateful to my 12 year old self. Along with the teaching myself to play guitar, teaching myself the dude whistle reminds me I had at least a couple episodes of unplanned good planning for a 7th grader.

And really all this whistle talk is the long way of saying I was looking at 7th grade me the other day and thinking to myself, “dude I can’t believe we made it.” Seriously, back in 7th grade I could not imagine a future me, which was something I tried to explain here in my blog a number of times. I was getting bullied at school. I had raging crushes on at least 20 different girls and I was getting gender checked all the time. And I am forever grateful that I did not give up on all of that and who I was right then, but somehow, figured a way to stayed true to me, even when I strayed away from myself for huge chunks of time as an adult. Because the most amazing thing is that now, sometimes, I can be riding my bike or playing something on my guitar or lacing up my boots or holding hands with my date and I can feel the bond between the me then and me now. Like there is real continuity in my own life. If there is one thing I have gotten right, it’s been that – getting that 7th grader grown up – bringing that me into this world.