Aftermath & Recovery

In case you missed it, I added a note to yesterday's post. If the relevance of my experience is not readily apparent to those who wish to promote gender diversity in STEM, AAUW has a report, Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School, which discusses statistics and similar experiences for 21st-Century adolescents.

I've expressed some of my discomfort with conventional White Feminism in previous posts. Some of that discomfort had to do with my originally-conservative religious leanings. Some of it had more to do with the economic and authoritarian / partriarchal background that I come from.

Space connections

Some time ago, I mentioned how when I was growing up in Nebraska, the space program felt so far away, like I had not connections with is whatsoever.  I was in college by the time Clayton Anderson was selected as an astronaut, my understanding is that he's the first astronaut from Nebraska.


My classmates seemed to think that working for the space program was an impossible dream, "You have to be SMART to work for NASA!"  Sometimes it seemed like my parents agreed with that assessment.

(The truth is that intelligence is a big help, but superhuman Genius is not required.)

Giving Arts a Chance: Junior year

So we moved from Nebraska back  to Indiana.  The place that is home, but not mine.  My mother's family has lived in Indiana since at least 1920.   My father's side of the family has been on the Indiana/Ohio border for about 200 years.

Mom grew up visiting her grandmother on Sundays, and playing with her cousins regularly.  I was lucky to see my grandparents once a year, and my cousins less than that.

We moved to a small town in northwestern Indiana.  Starke County, just north of Pulaski County.

I don't recall registering for classes, so I am guessing my parents registered me.  I'm not sure why I didn't take band that year.  Did I consciously choose not to?  Did they simply forget to sign me up?  Or did it have activity fees that they balked at?  It might not have fit the schedule that I had.  Regardless, I didn't take band.

Careful what you assume

Sometimes I think I could do a lot worse, than be the person I was in junior high.  Running around playing tag with my neighbors, and such.  I was a long way from perfect, and did some things wrong.  But here's something that I did right.

Hobbies and family support 2: Elementary school Vocals

I have always sung, around the house, wherever I was.  There used to be an old cassette tape of me and my mom, I was probably in preschool, singing some Sound of Music songs.  When I was a little older, I can remember singing "Hard-Knock Life" from Annie while I was doing chores around the house.