Developing Interests

It seems to me that most kids growing up with as many moves as we made either become quite introverted or quite extroverted in order to survive the constant uprootings and not really having a place to call "home." As a true Gemini, I found myself pulled in two directions, outgoing at school but more withdrawn out of it. In the Philippines we had many friends, but in Okinawa we traveled across the island for school, and there were no girls my age in the neighborhood. In seventh grade, I found friends in books, music, and art, spending hours by myself, oblivious to everything else. School work was easy for me, but my parents refused an offer by the school to have me skip a grade, because they had watched my brother do that and be so far behind his classmates in age and maturity.

I was at that awkward ugly duckling stage, wanting desparately to grow up faster, and books simply took me away! Oh, the romance and travels with the historical novels by Thomas Costain, Samuel Shellabarger, Kenneth Roberts, Mary Stewart, Daphne Du Maurier, Margaret Mitchell, and then into the Bronte sisters. We had no television, but the Armed Forces Radio Network was wonderful. I memorized all of the lyrics to the top hits of the day ("Your Lucky Strike Hit Parade") and fell in love with Broadway musicals, as well as classical music. My other passion was designing clothes, absolutely gorgeous and glamorous creations that Hollywood would surely have loved! I cut up butcher paper to make lavish, thick books with my elaborate designs, complete with make up, hair dos, and accessories, of course! It was a wonderful world of make-believe, totally insulating me from the outside ugliness of Okinawa.

It did set patterns which would continue throughout my life. In high school the reading would continue and expand, and my love for literature and history would continue to develop into a future career. The love of music would stay forever, as well, in many different forms. The fashion designing went by the wayside, replaced by the reading of magazines and following all of the trends of the day, trying to piece together a look for me without spending much money. And of course, they are still the interests I hold today, in many different forms. How thankful I am to have discovered these at so young an age!