In junior high and high school I spent several years as a fairly non-noteworthy geek ... but by junior and senior year I had really hit my stride in math and science: I was finally slotted, albeit late in some cases, into AP courses, and was making really good grades.
Unfortunately, a behemoth was lurking around the corner: theater.
My high school counselor advised me to make time for some extracurricular activities since this would make me look more "well-rounded" on college applications. "Why not try out for a play?" she suggested. "You're friendly with the teacher who directs."
Why not indeed. So I did.
The dull unburnished nutshell is that I was in two plays during my senior year of high school, and the experience knocked me off what I thought were the polished rails of my life. I was exposed to a range of social situations I was totally unprepared for, I was joyously expressing myself (including blurts of concentrated rage over having been teased for years) and most miraculously, girls started paying attention to me.
It's this last fact that proved to be my undoing, I believe. Eventually I would not only major in Theater (and English) in undergraduate school (totally avoiding the Chemistry department, for one, even though they were after me) ... I went on to get an MFA in Acting and a Ph.D. (!) in Dramatic Art.
I see it all now as the total revolt of my frustrated biology, a revolt that managed somehow to derail me from what I truly wanted and focus my attention on what others wanted from me. I remained thus derailed until roughly the age of 40.
I'm not proud of any of this and I cannot account for the length of time I spent in darkness. Although I can thank the theater for some wonderful experiences, I do view my absconding from my original path as the Great Mistake of my life -- a true failure of nerve for which I have paid dearly, and continue to pay.
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