There are pictures of me in dresses, sixseveneight years old and wearing dog prints, denim, velvet. Did I choose these? I don't remember ever being attracted to skirts and blouses. When I was twelve, I wore a pair of shorts that were bright red that my mother gave me. They were a size ten.

When I was in eleven, in sixth grade, my school shut down. Truthfully, it was less dramatic than that: a Montessori combining grades 1-8 in one classroom, the enrollment numbers trickled down until there were ten of us in the class. I was the only one in my grade. I worked with the only eighth grader and my principal on my classes. After that year, the school switched gears to focus on early childhood.

When I was eleven, I worked with that eighth grader and one of two principals my school had....

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