A middle-class kid from a middle-west town; a shy, clean-cut, goodie-goodie, teacher’s pet, student-athlete contradiction. Having either the good or the mis-fortune of being accepted or tolerated by both the cool kids and the outsiders, yet feeling like I never really belonged. Fortunately, I was a freak of Jewish DNA, packing 200 muscular pounds into a 6-foot frame, which limited some bullying. Befriending an African-American homosexual simply because he was kind and funny was my normal without concern for the appalled looks or the hallway shoves. Fonzie-esque “hard guys” cursed my jock status but accepted me for my woodworking skills. Thespians invited me to perform in their plays, poets to write in their workshops; book clubbers reveled in competing with a jock for a book-reading prize. Only in adulthood did I realize the gift of having my complex and diversified life to shape my perspective.