I am the one who.... [1]

I was at a writer's meeting this past weekend where the theme was "Words into Film." It's not that I intend to write screenplays, but I've found that I get as much, and sometimes more, out of attending events that aren't specific to the genres in which I do write. (Besides, I'm on the board of the sponsoring organization.)

One of the presenters has made a documentary film that is well-received around Vermont. Shout it Out shows teens in their own voices (think High School Musical in the real world) and one of the prompts the producer/director used to develop the project was "I am the one who."

If I were a teen filling this one out, it would read like this:

I am the one who is different. I am smart and I like to learn things. I am tall and thin and I don't have big boobs, but I do have big feet. I will never have a boyfriend. I am clumsy. I don't like sports and will do anything I can to get out of phys. ed. I like singing in Chorus and working backstage for theater.

Being that teen made me a writer. Even before I knew I had Marfan's, the syndrome shaped my life by making my difference visible. Being the tallest girl in class by a long shot (most of the girls topped out at 5'5" to my 5'11" and most of the boys were a couple inches shorter) meant I couldn't hide, even if I had wanted to pretend to be less intelligent. So I didn't pretend.

But notice, intelligence was in the number one spot. I figured it was the one I could control. There wasn't anything I could do about my height (this was in the era before growth hormones).

Marfans is still fairly far down on my list of how I define myself. But that's another post.