ATTN when did you know you were not like other people

[DFW]

33. Creeping hints during my teenage years

I refused to dress as the “in crowd” demanded. I didn’t listen to the same music they did, found myself learning to play instruments they didn’t, and when I landed for one year at a boarding “prep” school (and hated it), the only table where I ever sat at meals was the one where all the token black guys were, because they were the only ones without the attitude that the world owed them a living.

The “preppies” never sat with them, and I never sat with anyone else. They all assured me I must have some black blood (not that I knew of) because I wasn’t like the rest of the kids there—a compliment in my eyes, a big negative in the eyes of the school, who made sure I knew it.

I’ve been going my own way ever since. If anything was “in,” the chances were that I was out (you play a what? WTF is a balalaika?).