Society
Powerful Storytelling
Through the eyes of many people, my life was incredibly average. I am a 5 foot, 3 inches tall, average weight, White, and now middle-aged, female. I grew up in suburban Chicago to parents that are still married today. Most members of my large extended family lived nearby when I was a child, so I had plenty of cousins as friends. My mom stayed home and raised her kids, but babysat for neighbors and did the odd creative project to bring in extra cash. Our house was a basic split level, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch with a small yard. We owned a Shih-tzu dog and I had two younger brothers. Everything a person could witness about me externally appeared very very average.
As a teenager, I saw the same things about myself that I thought others saw. I worked a typical retail job in high school, and found ways to have fun with my friends on the weekend —weeknights at the shopping mall, weekend dinners at TGIFridays and Olive Garden, and late nights at teen dance clubs with names like Zero Gravity. I bought myself nice clothes with income from the after-school job, but my parents were neither rich nor poor. I ran track and cross country and always finished the race right in the middle of the pack; never first and never last. I was never extremely popular but I was also never bullied. Very, very average.
