Chapters

I was wandering through the section of my word processing program where I keep my most random writings, and I came across my autobiography. Not the whole thing. Just the beginning.

You see, a couple years ago I belonged to a short-lived on-line book club, and the assignment for the month was to read an autobiography, and then write a short autobiographical piece. I made an effort to write a very condensed autobiography of myself, divided into extremely short chapters. I finished 2 chapters, titled the third, and then ditched effort... but never erased it.

I ran across it today, decided it had a certain charm, and resolved to paste it here for your enjoyment. It’s got an almost poetic brevity to it. Maybe I’ll finish it some day...

Chapter One- Full House

A university professor and his schoolteacher wife spent the 60’s creating a family. The Baby Boom was coming to an end, but I guess no one let them in on that bit of info. I was the second of six. Busy, happy household. Way out in the country. No TV most of the time. Large gardens and a modest herd of livestock provided much of our food. Organic. Healthy. Hard work and boisterous play continuously warmed the household.

Chapter Two- School

The standardized tests always seems ridiculously easy to me. Pointless, really. Although I must have aced them every time, the only gesture that the teachers made with regard to recognizing that I was ‘smarter than the average bear’ was to place me in classes with older students. The result of this was that I 1) was picked on by the older students because I was quiet and painfully shy, and 2) I had no choice but to repeat 6th grade because there was no provision for sending children to middle school ahead of schedule.

Chapter Three- Salutatorian

And that's where I stopped.