I can’t remember when she taught me, but by at least 4 I’ve known how to play chess, taught by my mother and then years later reinforced lessons from my father. My mother and uncle used to pit myself and my cousin against each other in chess and boxing tournaments.
Third grade, school, across the street I was truant from for months, forging letters of illness and faking my stepfathers voice. Insanely I produced homework every night for months on end and multiple projects. I did an essay on Russia. I got busted and had to explain how I was doing the classwork of my grade and higher, who was feeding me info? Lol
4th grade was a short bus ride away to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn and you could leave the building at lunch and buy your own. I had discovered comic books and a full hobby store—-my fondest memory of elementary school.
Catholic school after that where I pointed out years later in a high school science class , 9th grade, that the book was the same as my fifth grade one. They didn't believe me.
Catholic school after that where I pointed out years later in a high school science class , 9th grade, that the book was the same as my fifth grade one. They didn't believe me.
My parents divorced in a cataclysm in October of 7th grade, we left town and returned in May. I'd been testing 12th grade reading and 11th grade math since 4th grade so they just graduated me to 8th grade. Mathematically this hampered me as I missed out on algebraic transition but I remember being deeply fascinated by probability theory, further exampled in years of RPG campaigns.
I started drawing comics at about 6 and writing scripts at 12. By 7 I'd started my first business. By 13 my first national one. By 13 I'd written several novels.
In high school I had several mentors. Two in writing and one in advanced literature who enforced that he hadn't gotten to college until 21 and had a doctorate . I stayed in high school until March of my senior year for a boyfriend and all of those writing classes, they would extort my other classes against the writing ones. At 16 I wrote a two hour full screenplay for our soap opera club and began directing it which got me into an advanced program at Long Island university. I was in the Mock Trial team though it was only for Juniors and Seniors, as a Freshman and allowed to compete as a Sophomore because I knew the rules, case, etc so well.
In high school I had several mentors. Two in writing and one in advanced literature who enforced that he hadn't gotten to college until 21 and had a doctorate . I stayed in high school until March of my senior year for a boyfriend and all of those writing classes, they would extort my other classes against the writing ones. At 16 I wrote a two hour full screenplay for our soap opera club and began directing it which got me into an advanced program at Long Island university. I was in the Mock Trial team though it was only for Juniors and Seniors, as a Freshman and allowed to compete as a Sophomore because I knew the rules, case, etc so well.
Rather than graduate high school I took the GED and scored 3 short of a perfect score---I would have had to stay another semester to collect ten credits to graduate on time. I still have confused dreams about whether I'm still trapped in high school.
I worked for a couple of years then got to a state school where I TAed as an undergrad, displayed a dozen manuscripts and wrote and published more around the country. Won some writing awards, got hired for performances, wrote for chapbooks, newspaper and magazine all at once, pissing folk off.
Five years and I was done. Corporate America for a few years, a dozen computer certifications, real estate almost license, MBA, then I went into education/teaching , taught thousands------sexuality , relationships, finance, entrepreneurship, taught all ages, then started consulting to DOE to repair schools, professional development, and decided on masters in education, jd in education policy, doctorate. Started a TV show series and began book publishing business on Columbia professors advice.
A couple hundred books in, still another hundred to come out in the next few years. It sounds like a prodigious amount but the first wave of a hundred are from years of workshops and salvageable manuscripts and dozens of short stories .
When I finish this phase, I'd like to pursue film, music, physics and psychology as masters degrees over the next 20 years. I want to write some more films and create music that I dream but have never heard anywhere. I'm considering a clinical medical technology training program so that I can potentially teach it as I have computers, ged classes , college classes in nearly all subjects. I want a thick CV.
I like school when I am paced, pushed. Outside life always imbalances me away from interests so for now I'm just selfishly writing, school, work. No other distractions. I stopped my IQ test in the high 160s, I could see it was really going higher. I think its spiritually unhealthy to know the exact number. I fully expect to be "discovered" after death so I'm quite happy to create a swath of work, make a little money and enjoy the exploration rather than seek adoration. Sometimes I think there will be this mass thing one day of students and friends talking about me, trying to piece together their experiences of me to my work. The internet, my videos. TV show, books, blog, even this fascinates me as time capsule of sorts.
I own about 5000 books.
I’ve read probably 10,000 books.
I’ve owned and read about 30,000 comic books which might fall into high and lowbrow, I drastically improved my reading comprehension and understanding of narrative structure as a child. As a teacher, I would recommend that parents inundate their children with comic books at an early age.
I used to consume magazines at an insane rate until just the sheer moving of them got ridiculous. Maybe 2500 of them.
I don’t watch TV or movies regularly because of limited narrative structures, I find it predictable. That has to do with an eidetic memory so the suspension of disbelief is difficult for me to achieve. It also promotes false values and morals and reinforces hegemony. I’m very selective as an adult, in the past 15–20 years what I consciously allow into my mind.
I regularly read about 5 books a week in a wide range of areas. I would say 80% of my reading in the past 20 years is non-fiction, it used to be reversed but I found fiction repetitive.
I go to the movies maybe two or three times a year now with Netflix and Hulu and I haven’t watched cable in years, a waste of money too have so much available but unable to consume.
I write a lot, 10,000,000 words a year.
I’m often taking not only in person but online courses. My lottery dream would involve winning the lottery and then being able to travel to classes all over the world constantly. My second educational dream is three or four more Masters degrees in film/media, math, physics and finance/business.
I can’t remember ever being “bored”.
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