Something that struck me in this writing practice was a quality I’ve seen in you many times that you had at eight. Sort of a sensible, practical way to make decisions. I can absolutely see you weighing the pros and cons of a girl’s bike and doing what made sense. Why not? Too bad the social consequences were severe; it was a good decision.

I didn’t get (and still don’t) how things have genders. Boy’s bikes. Girl’s bikes. Boy’s shoes. Girl’s clothes. It’s ridiculous as though I could change my sex by surrounding myself with “girl’s” things. What I’ve learned over time is that the people around me feel more comfortable if I express myself using the gender-specific things available in our society.

Something that struck me about this practice was the fact that neither of your parents said anything about you wanting a girl’s bike rather than a boy’s bike. It seems like it would have been a time when parents would have questioned that and maybe anticipated that you might get teased. Gender specifications were so much more set back then.

Then again, I think if I had told my parents I wanted a boy’s bike, they probably would have gotten it for me. Did you ever tell your parents later in life about this experience? I’m just curious if they ever knew the impact it had on you. Thanks for writing with me. I really appreciate it.

Weren’t we taught to soldier on? Really, what other is there if we want to continue to live in this world?