Revelations of youth which are now ridiculously obvious. Do you remember one of yours?

[crim son]

Remember how one night as you were lying in bed, you had a moment of tremendous insight and you said to yourself, "Aha. So that's what it's all about. Wow." An example (mildly embarrassing): when I was a freshman in college I took an english lit. course where I was exposed for the first time to some of the classic poets - John Donne, Robert Herrick, and Shakespeare, the sonnets which I hadn't known existed. Anyhow I was struck very forcefully with the realization that people hundreds of years ago were just like people today; that they suffered jealousy, heartbreak, elation, desire etc. etc. At the time it seemed like this was an incredibly wise realization but now of course, it seems a pretty mundane thought. Do you recall any such flashes of brilliance that turned out to be, well, common sense?

[Chan790]

1. I think I was in Kindergarten

before I realized that a soul wasn't an organ like a heart or a brain...not that I knew what they did either, only that they were red and purple on the anatomy chart in the doctor's office.

[crim son]

2. That's what I'm talking about.

That's a cute one.

[Radio_Lady]

72. I was also in kindergarten -- and riding in the back seat of my father's car.

I looked at the red sign out of the car window.

It said, S --- T --- O --- P.

"Daddy, that sign says, 'Stop,' I exclaimed.

"Good girl," he said excitedly. "You're starting to read!"

I was very proud of myself. It was the first time I ever put letters together to make a word.

[jpgray]

3. If somebody likes one, it isn't necessarily a positive reflection on either person

:D

[crim son]

5. So true! although I still forget it sometimes. n/t

[KurtNYC]

4. In Allegheny State Park

I was walking around at dawn, followed a path to a large pool of water. There was a rustic dome structure in the middle, surrounded by this peaceful little pond. Purple flowers grew out of the top of the dome and I was thinking along the lines of 'what person built this pond and that structure and did the landscaping?' It only took me a few minutes to figure out that it was all made by beavers but I felt a kind of self-embarrassment. I have seen many beaver ponds since and I still wonder over how they do it -- they are architect, engineer and contractor, from one generation to the next, without written or verbal communication. It makes a strong case for either a more detailed kind of instinctual knowledge or for some strong ability of beavers to learn from their parents. Either of those ideas is incredbile.

[crim son]

7. I read the first part to my son and he cracked up at

"...what person built this pond and that structure and did the landscaping?"

I think ants are as fascinating as beavers in terms of their innate skills, but beavers are much cuter. :)

[XemaSab]

100. I was just in the shower and I remembered this post

and started LAUGHING LIKE A LOON.

Good times. :D

[LostInAnomie]

6. My sophomore year of college...

... I was in a Sociology class title: Race, Class, and Gender in Popular Culture. My professor (a Canadian Marxist) was talking about class in America and the differences in pay for work. Someone mentioned how people are paid for the value of their work. To which he pointed out that the value of your work has nothing to do with what you are paid. You are paid according to the value placed on your work by those with resources. If they don't see much value in your work, you won't be paid much.

[crim son]

10. You didn't happen to to to University of Oregon, did you?

I took the same class and the professor was also a Marxist, although I thought he was American. It was one of the most interesting and enlightening courses I've ever taken and I remember being taken aback by the same realization you describe.

[LostInAnomie]

19. Nope

I went to the University of Southern Indiana. I'm sure he was Canadian because he always talked about how he loved working in the US because of the favorable exchange rate he gets when paying back his student loans.

He probably was my favorite professor because of his Marxist views. Up until that time I had been oblivious to any school of thought outside the conventional. He was extremely talented at deconstructing conventional thought and point out how it was flawed and who it really benefited. Great teacher.

[crim son]

22. I think everybody should have to take that course, but

earlier in the educational process. In Canada, in fifth grade, I took a class on deceptive advertising/subliminal messaging IOW manipulation of public perception. At the time it was both fascinating and appalling; it still is.

[SPKrazy]

8. I Realized That I Wasn't The Center Of The Universe

and the universe wasn't in orbit around me, my head was just spinning around :crazy:

seriously...

I think that I remember realizing that Republicans weren't for the common person... that was a revelation that seems so obvious as to be just a given to me today.

I suppose there are plenty of idiots in the country that think the Republicans are for the common person or they wouldn't keep electing them at all. (There are a hell of a lot more common persons in this country than there are "elites" however, most of us fancy ourselves a little better than the next person in some way)

:shrug:

[crim son]

11. I know what you mean. I grew up in a republican household,

in the same way that I grew up in a religious household. It wasn't until I got out into the world and saw how *other people* operationalized their political and religious beliefs that I began to understand what it really meant to be conservative, or dogmatically religious (my parents were/are neither).

[zanne]

117. When I was fourteen....

I realized that loving someone doesn't mean they'll love you back.

[graywarrior]

9. My parents had sex to have ME.

I was 21 when I found that out. (I keed, I keeeeeeeed.)

[crim son]

13. It still gives you the willies, don't it?

I can scarcely believe I had sex to have my kids, let alone that my parents got it on to have me.

[graywarrior]

21. It was a horrifying revelation.

Horrifying.

[Breeze54]

12. This may sound silly but

I learned or realized the power in a smile.

Forgot to say how old I was....I think I was around 19 or 20.

[crim son]

14. It doesn't sound stupid at all.

Some people still haven't figured that out!

[Deja Q]

15. The concept of 'mutual attraction'

Which reminds me, I need to lift those weights some more tonight...

[crim son]

17. That's a mystery I have not yet penetrated.

I'd lift weights with you but I danced to much last night that my knees are barely functional. I suppose I could sit on my mat and do some upper-body work... but why? :shrug:

[Deja Q]

18. Let's just say upperbody work is good because arms can come in handy...

:yoiks:

Sorry to hear about your knees. I walked so much yesterday I had the same problem. :(

[crim son]

23. Thanks! I'm sorry about your knees too.

And it's true, life wouldn't be the same w/out arms. :loveya:

[BlackVelvet04]

16. I was 18

and I had moved to the the D.C. metro area and had gone out to dinner with co-workers on Halloween night. We went through a shady section of the city and I commented how everybody was dressed up for Halloween. My co-workers all laughed until they were sick and wouldn't tell me why.

Later that night I was thinking about it and realized it was just the women dressed up and most of them were dressed very much alike....short, short skirts, high-heeled knee boots, big hair, lots of makeup. And it hit me....prostitutes.

I NEVER lived it down.

[crim son]

20. Thats an interesting one!

Did you move from a small city or town?

[BlackVelvet04]

24. Yes.....

a town of 5,000 people. I lived a sheltered life and prostitute was just a word....not a reality. It was an eye-opening experience that made me realize there were many things that went on in the "outside" world that I had no knowledge of.

[crim son]

26. Well, you learned.

I'm sure the world is full of sights that neither of us could ever even imagine, good and bad.

[BlackVelvet04]

28. Key West was quite enlightening as well. n/t

[crim son]

29. I've never been.

Costa Rica and Mexico however were eye-openers.

[BlackVelvet04]

31. I haven't been to Costa Rica but I have been to Mexico and

it was the first I had seen of overwhelming poverty.

[Radio_Lady]

73. THAT STORY IS SO FUNNY! Thanks for posting it! Hahahahaha....

I know you were the butt of the joke, but I enjoyed it immensely, nevertheless.

[av8rdave]

97. Reminds me of a much more embarrassing experience...

I was newly single again (early 90s), in my mid 30s. I was on a layover in New York City. The Captain immediately called it a night and went to bed. It was a long layover, so I decided to stop in the hotel lounge for a cold one. As I sat at the very crowded bar, a very attractive, tastefully dressed woman eventually sat next to me. We started talking, and it was a great conversation! I was starting to marvel to myself about how charming I must be.

Eventually, the bartender brought the tab, and I was a bit surprised at the cost of a draft beer (New York City prices). The lady commented that was what to expect in New York. I said, "I suppose so, but I do think $7 for a draft is a bit over the top." She replied, "well, I guess that means you'd think $300 is too much as well."

Talk about shock and instant ego deflation! I had no idea she was a "prefessional," as she certainly didn't look/act the part. I paid my tab and bailed out. It was quite some time before I felt comfortable getting out and about in New York by myself.

Oh well...live and learn!

[Zookeeper]

25. Post-teen years: Relax, people are so preoccupied....

with themselves that they usually don't even notice others enough to judge small details.

I keep trying to explain this to my typically self-conscious 14 year-old.

[crim son]

27. Hell, yeah.

Although my almost sixteen-yr-old daughter is extremely critical and judgemental about her classmates which I think is why she is so preoccupied with her own appearance. Self-defense. It's one of the finer aspects of getting older: we stop caring very much, or at all.

[Zookeeper]

37. "..getting older.."

Oh yeah, isn't it great! I cut my own hair, fool around with the color, things I never would have done when I younger. Remember when it was traumatic if a hairstylist cut a inch too much from one's hair? Like, a bag over the head was required until that extra inch grew back? (Actually, I didn't stress too much over that one, but my friends sure did.)

[crim son]

38. I remember that!

I agonized for years over my elbows. Now I can't figure out why I thought they were so hideous.

Young people are beautiful but they rarely realize exactly how beautiful.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. When I was about seven, I read that trees are plants

I was so astonished at this information that I ran to my mother and shared it with her. I didn't quite believe it. I thought trees were just...there. I didn't know they were alive.

[crim son]

33. Cute!

Also very interesting to think that you categorized trees differently than, say, daisies.

[skygazer]

32. I don't know if it's ridiculously obvious but it was a revelation

I realized that the more embarassed one acts, the more it draws attention to what they're embarassed about.

Learned that at about 17 while playing strip poker. My girlfriend lost the first couple of hands and was red in the face and squirming with embarassment - all the guys were having a ball watching her.

So when I finally started losing, I treated it like no big deal. Even got up stark naked to get more beer - they were so busy teasing her, they hardly focused on me.

It was an enlightening lesson.

[crim son]

34. skygazer, that's another lesson that is very useful, even

as an adult.

You were playing strip poker at 17? :P

[skygazer]

35. It was a small town

We had to make our own fun. :blush:

[crim son]

36. hehe. Sure.

:rofl:

[otherlander]

39. Nine years old

when I realized, "Oh my god! My government gave a guy LSD and it made him go crazy and jump out a window?"

[crim son]

40. What are you referring to?

My revelations about the government came rather later in life.

[otherlander]

41. Frank Olson

The CIA guy who objected to MKULTRA. He may have been pushed, though the CIA denies that. They've admitted giving him the LSD, though.

[Breeze54]

42. You 'realized' THAT at NINE yrs old???

:shrug:

[otherlander]

44. Part of it.

Realized that they drugged him and let him go crazy and jump. Didn't realize that he would have been a whistleblower or that he might have been pushed.

[SayWhatYo]

113. whoops... wrong place.

[Oeditpus Rex]

43. The only thing I can think of

isn't really congruent to the question.



Besides — it might get the thread locked. :scared:

[crim son]

46. I can guess.

And even imagine :)

[Oeditpus Rex]

49. Betcha can't

Okay, I'm gonna just say it, even though it's not a revelation of youth:

I was well into my 30s before I started to realize, heebus, women enjoy sex just as much as men.

:blush:

[crim son]

50. Aww, that's rather charming.

Although I don't know what you're talking about. :P

[Oeditpus Rex]

53. ...

:spray:

Suuuuuuuurrrrrrrrre you don't. :rofl:

[leftofthedial]

45. 4 years old

I realized that repukes are vermin

[crim son]

47. Aha. A prodigy.

It doesn't surprise me. :hi:

[leftofthedial]

80. it was a no-brainer

Kennedy versus Nixon

[The Straight Story]

48. I didn't drink - so the 'lost shaker of salt' in Margaritaville made no sense to me

Until a few years ago (and I am 41).

I had no idea what the F he was talking about :)

[crim son]

51. ...

:spray: Sorry, but that's just funny!

[The Straight Story]

56. it is funny looking back on it now

all those years wasted wondering why the hell he was looking for salt.

See what being a nerd gets ya in life :)

[fizzgig]

52. this a tad morbid

but i was 12 or 13 before i realized why there is always dirt left over when you bury someone (we buried a fair number of cats when i was little)

[crim son]

58. Well, crap. I hadn't ever thought of that.

What a sad realization.

[XemaSab]

83. Part of it is space taken up by the corpse

The other part is you're "fluffing" the soil by not putting it back as tightly as it was in the first place. :P

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

54. I was about 5, and my mother explained that she and my dad

were not related to each other. I was astonished. I had assumed all family members were actual relatives.

[crim son]

59. Why should you have thought otherwise?

It makes me wonder when I figured it out... I can't remember.

[Radio_Lady]

75. Well, what the hell. After 36 years with Gramps, he and I are living like brother and sister.

Really! That's what long term marriage will do to you!

[crim son]

84. I've been living with my STBE in the same manner since very

early in the marriage. It's one reason why our parting is amicable...

[Radio_Lady]

119. Not familiar with what the acronym STBE means, but that's OK...

After marriage to three husbands, I find it a miracle that SOMEONE can live with ANYONE for ANY LONG PERIOD of time. We are certainly not the same people we were in former decades -- and so many things come along that test our relationships.

We are all like comets flying through space on this journey through life. If our paths intersect for some reasonable length of time, that's to be applauded.

After my last divorce, my daughter was just two years old and my son was one.

They remember only living with me and their stepfather, or later, with their father and stepmother.

My daughter has continued to ask me throughout my life what qualities drew my ex-husband and me together, because she finds it (or should I say "found it" because he died Dec. 1) so odd that we married AT ALL. I told her that many of the things that we shared and even the way he looked and kept himself up changed dramatically when he remarried two weeks after our divorce. Also, he married a very good woman who was musically inclined, played piano, sang with an operatic voice, could cook and loved to do it, and worked her butt off in her professional life. I have nothing but admiration for her.

I told my daughter that you can't expect people to be the same throughout their childhood, but people grow and change and have other things that alter their lives EVEN when they are adults or even as elderly people.

Anyway, hope you see this and good luck with your life experiences!

[Redstone]

55. Unfortunately, I never had any "revelations of youth," because I was never young.

Wish I had been; it sounds like it must have been fun.

Redstone

[crim son]

60. You don't remember the light bulb going on in your head

when you finally understood that six times six was six, six times?

:hug: :hug: :hug:

[Redstone]

62. Not really. Though I do remember thinking, for a brief moment, "So THAT's why

they told me not to ride the skid."

That one revelation was just about enough for me.

Redstone

[crim son]

65. Some of the hardest lessons

are learned when we're past childhood.

[Redstone]

68. Well, that one sure taught me. I'll never ride the skid again.

Redstone

[Generic Brad]

57. Studying philosophy in college

Once I started reading summaries of what the greatest thinkers in history discovered, I came to the realization that my whole Catholic upbringing was based on superstition and hearsay. (My apologies to the true believers - but the concept of a virgin birth and a resurrection suddenly seemed like complete bullshit to me and remains so to this day).

[crim son]

61. Yep. Once that particular light goes on

you can never stand the darkness again, even though you might wish for it.

[LynzM]

78. Struck a nerve with that one....

I was thinking the same kind of thing, but you beat me to the post! Some days, I really wish I could turn the damn light back off. x(

[Radio_Lady]

76. Yep, Brad, I know what you mean. Religion is made of 90% speculation and 10% imagination.

I really don't accept anything out of that 100% religious crap. I'm sorry, it has brought this planet nothing but heartache and pain for thousands of years.

I say it to almost anyone who will listen -- I honestly believe that God was made in Man's image, not the reverse.

This does nothing to tamp down my love of life -- this present moment -- which is all we have. I respect your right to believe something else. But the dogma of Judaism makes me choke, and that started when I was about 11 years old, and not being born a boy, I was shunted into the female secondary status which existed for women then (and still does, to some degree, now).

[UndertheOcean]

63. I was 12 years old when it came to me !

thats where a p$nis goes !

[crim son]

66. I'm 43 and wondering

what's a p$nis?

:rofl:

Didn't your parents give you "the talk" before then?

[evlbstrd]

64. When I was six.

I realized that turning off the teevee doesn't stop the show until you come back.
I went on to not invent the TIVO.

[crim son]

67. Lol!

That's the age when it happens, about eighteen months after you finally understand that there are no little people inside the television.

[evlbstrd]

69. And life will never be the same.

It's a bitter, bitter lesson.

[Radio_Lady]

74. My father got a patent on KIDDIEVISION. It was essentially a box with a screen cut out.

A child could sit behind the screen and pretend he/she was on TV.

I think it was in the 1950s and as I recall, he only made the prototype.

However, he did also invent a COIN-OPERATED MICROSCOPE MACHINE, which actually worked and several of them were around in Miami, Florida for a couple of years.

[Conan_The_Barbarian]

70. Sirens of Titan

"was a victim of a series of accidents"

I'm a fan of absurdity. Not sure where it comes from but I remeber after reading that quote and that bok my outlook on life changed quite a bit. I see absurdity all over the place, I love to think about situations and the chain of events that lead up to them. For some reason I see a lot of humor in it. It's not rare for me to be having to fight a big stupid grin and a fit of laughter at a time where it's socially expected that I be somber and serious. It's not that I'll find somone elses misfortune itself humorous, but rather what lead up to it, bah I can't explain it, I'm just weird, leave it at that.

[crim son]

71. Then you and I understand one another. n/t

[zingaro]

77. I remember with startling clarity

the moment I realized my oldest sibling was born a mere six months after my parents had been married.

:rofl:

[SPKrazy]

81. Hmmmmm

:think:

6 mos

9 mos

6 mos

:shrug:

:rofl:

:hi:

:hug:

[zingaro]

82. Exactly.

EX-actly.

I was a sophomore in high school. We were at lunch. I was working on a family tree project for science class when the light bulb appeared. I remember standing up and pacing back and forth a few times then bursting out laughing which, of course, caused me to need to explain myself. :rofl:

Did the clowns prevent your sucky day from turning into a sucky weekend? I hope so. :hug:

[SPKrazy]

98. Don't know if the clowns did it...

but so far the weekend isn't sucky, and Friday wasn't particularly sucky either...

the family tree project for science class and the revelation..then laughter... how funny, that is a great story.

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

79. My dear crim son........

I'm not sure this one qualifies.....But here goes anyway:

I was heartbroken when I realized that Jesus wasn't Catholic!

I was probably somewhere between the ages of 8-10...

It came as a complete shock, I can tell you!

:crazy:

[crim son]

86. That one totally qualifies.

I had it too although it didn't affect me the way it did you. Along the same lines, I realized one day that millions of deeply religious people, people who'd give up their lives for their beliefs, believe in entirely different God/s, or God-supporting belief constructs. At that point, organized religion left my life forever.

[InvisibleTouch]

85. I don't think I had revelations like that...

...until very recently. "The meaning of life and the nature of the universe" is starting to come together for me only now. Though in retrospect, it's just an extension of how I felt about things all along.

[crim son]

87. Intellectually curious people continue to have revelations

throughout their lifetime, I imagine. You are one of them.

[dropkickpa]

88. I was about 10

When I realized that religious people REALLY, honest-to-god (pun intended) believed in all that stuff. It was a revelation of some magnitude. It had just never occurred to me that people really believed that some guy died, was resurrected, and his mom was a virgin. I'd had a class in 4th grade that spent the whole year on Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology, and I made new friend that year whose mom was a super fundy (Texas version, SCARY) and I realized that they believed all that stuff was real, not just myths like I was learning about. My parents NEVER took us to church or indoctrinated us in any religion, Mum is a lapsed Catholic (very strict cath upbringing), Dad was raised by ex-catholics (gramma was excommunicated). That's why grandma (mums mum)was always on her when we were kids visiting to get me baptised (the oldest two were to shut her up, after that the 'rents just said screw that)!!

I was flabbergasted that people really believed all that, I'd go "But how?? Do they not believe in science or hell, even logic?". I'm still a bit confused as to how people are able to do it, it's just not something that was built into me (us, actually, all 6 of us kids are the same way).

[crim son]

90. That's interesting and it underscores the point that a good education

is the enemy of religion.

[ContraBass Black]

89. About three months ago, I realized that my father has been training me

To be a computer engineer since I was thirteen months old.

[crim son]

91. To my mind, that's pretty cool.

What do you think about it?

[ContraBass Black]

92. I'm finding it useful.

However, I have no plans to emulate it.

[crim son]

94. I wouldn't either, but like you I'd find it useful. n/t

[InvisibleTouch]

93. Wait, I did think of one:

I was about five, and my mom was folding up a kitchen towel that was printed with a 1973 calendar. She was telling me that the year was over and she was putting it away. I asked, "When will 1973 come again?" and she said, "Never." I was totally baffled. It just didn't make sense to me that time wasn't cyclical and would never come back around to that same year, eventually. I guess it was the concept that things pass away and never come back. Sometimes it still doesn't make sense to me. :)

[crim son]

95. Whoa, I know that one.

I grasped it one New Year's Eve and spent the night crying.

Also, I remember those towels. Do they still make them?

[InvisibleTouch]

96. Not sure...

...We had several of them from the 70's up through (I think) 1980. As a family that never throws anything away, we still have most of them. They've now been split between my mom's and my household, though I think my brother turned up his nose at them. :) They're wonderful dish towels, though, because they're (by now having been washed so many times) very soft and absorbent.

I used to HATE New Year's, also, it would freak me out. Probably for the same reason: moments passing that will never come again.

In recent years I've come to think that much of what we perceive as the passage of time, is illusory anyway, so I'm less worked up about it.

[applegrove]

99. I realized at 18, duh, that I was in the wrong group of kids. That I should

have been hanging with the outcasts and less cool kids. I knew that at 14 but somehow forgot it along the way...I like people who are not perfect cause neither am I.

[krispos42]

101. Adding ice to a glass does not make more of the beverage

Just hit me one day.

[gmoney]

106. ....unless it's ice water.

A tasty refreshing beverage that replenishes itself! Makes it's own gravy.

[krispos42]

108. LOL that is t rue...

I think I was using milk, actually, for some odd reason.

[gmoney]

123. ice cubes in milk?

That's just weird...

[krispos42]

124. I think I started off showing my Mom how much more there was

when I added the ice cubes. Then it just kinda hit me!

[trackfan]

102. At about age 30, I figured out that "enhau" wasn't a word.

I thought that was the spelling of an interjection that my parents, and many other people, mostly older, often used. When I couldn't find it in the dictionary under every possible spelling, I got to thinking, and it finally dawned on me that it might just be "and how".

[u4ic]

103. I was about 10 or 11

when I realized all the people "back then" saw in colour, not black and white like the photos. :silly:

[Control-Z]

104. I realized when I was 7 years old

that in the blink of an eye the only thing left of that moment would be a memory and that I would never, ever get that moment back again.

[gmoney]

105. Not sure when I figured it out, but...

For a while, I thought that the bands and singers were all at the radio station playing the songs live, instead the music being on records...

[Ariana Celeste]

107. Just because it's true for me,

doesn't mean it's true for everyone else.

[BarenakedLady]

109. That spying on you is easy.

That there is no privacy as far as computers, phones, pocketbooks, notebooks, credit cards, fucking dresser drawers, etc goes. That if someone wants to find out what you are doing at any time, there is no way to stop them. I learned that once...and now I'm learning it again.

:banghead:

[crim son]

110. Learning it from the same person?

:hug: It's almost impossible to get away from that... either being spied on or finding oneself becoming an unwilling spy. I'm not sure exactly what happened on your end but PM me if you want to talk about it. :loveya:

[BarenakedLady]

121. Oh yes

of course same person :eyes: *sigh*

It's like a game of "Clue" around these parts. :hide: :tinfoilhat: :argh:

[crim son]

122. It proves there are feelings there.

I am a free agent and I think I am luckier than you are. Less guilt although more solitude.

[AllegroRondo]

111. That you really won't go blind.

I was around 14.

[Hosnon]

112. Very few people own their homes.

Growing up, I figured my parents simply owned our house. No one could come and take it from us. Eventually, the concept of a loan, specifically a mortgage, was realized and it rocked my world.

Looking back, it seems ridiculous to think my parents had a couple hundred thousand dollars lying around to buy a house with.

Edit: "Own" is not entirely accurate. I should say: "Very few people own their homes free of all liens."

[SayWhatYo]

114. 17ish... Wearing your pants down past your ass is stupid.

24years old... life sucks.

[El Fuego]

115. That when I was a little kid, my parents and the way they lived were actually pretty cool.

I guess there comes a time when you can see your parents as people and not just your parents.

[Shine]

116. First thing that comes to mind...

was when I figured out that I couldn't grow up to be older than my cousins, even though they were already older than me. I don't know how old I was when I "got" that, but it was a big revelation, not to mention disappointment, at the time. :rofl:

[HEyHEY]

118. Holy shit they're have been so many I can't even remember them

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

120. That there was a direct connection between slavery and

the black kids in my class. I was quite young, probably in 2nd or 3rd grade, and I of course was aware of the American history of slavery. But until then, the kids in my class were simply my classmates, neighbors and friends. When you're that young you don't pigeonhole, categorize and stereotype. People just are.

One day as we were studying Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, it dawned on me that the very history we were studying explained some of the kids in my class. Not that I needed an explanation, but that was the first time I realized that history has something to do with the world today. Before then, the history we studied might as well have happened on a different planet.