pussy-strut asked: that age is hard but also kind of great! pretty often those kids are sort of obsessed with themselves, and interested in folks our age to the extent that we represent the kinds of people they might someday be. i got a lot more questions about what college was like than about why i looked so dykey and weird when i was working with that age group. (although i suppose i looked less dykey than when i was working with elementary kids, who were sometimes just mean to me about my gender presentation)
Very good point, thanks so much! It makes me feel better to remember how self-obsessed folks are at that age, which does take some of the pressure off (though part of my concern is that they’ll see me and feel “implicated” by my queerness and react defensively, which is exactly what I would have done even though I looked gayer than a softball team in western Mass). Now that I think about it, there’s a chance they’ll read me as much younger than I am (because someone just came into my office and I told me a look 16, it’s whatever), which might make being authoritative hard but might make it more fun. Kids can be terrible but they can be great!
