People.

Hello people.

I am sick but have been beckoned to write.

When I was 12, I was asked to write a review of the movie Curly Sue for my middle school newspaper. I went to a pre-screening at Deerbrook Mall and took a notepad. I was all excited.

I wrote the review on my IBM and printed it out on the paper with the perforated holes on the side you have to pull off. I turned it in.

Months later (this wasn't the most timely of publications) some douchebag 8th grader comes in my 6th grade homeroom looking for me. He told me my work had been plagiarized and that it wouldn't be in the school paper.

I was sort of shocked then and when I think on't now, which I recently did, I am appalled.

Was it REALLY that good?

Maybe it was: I'm a good writer and I ended up being the editor-in-chief of my High School paper, yada yada; I write this blog and you're reading it, etc.

Ok, so I was a good f'in writer, even at 12. And there I was being told I was doing something worthy of suspension, were it on an actual class assignment.

They never showed me the review from which I had allegedly "stolen" my material. This was pre-internet--I tried digging through the Tribune myself to find it but to no avail.

I have become a director as a grown up; it makes sense to me that I might have had a critical eye as a kid.

(Godforbid that should have been encouraged.)

Was it cause I was a young girl? What if I had been a young boy? Who knows? I do recall learning in Psych class that there was a study that showed teachers respond to boys with a "yes, and," and that girls get a one-word response. But this, rather, was a two-word response:

"Step off."

I was reminded of this now because I'm getting a lot of: "Who the fuck are you?"

I think it's because I am short and yes, say it with me, that I'm a woman.

So the next time you see a 5'2" cute jewess or gentile or black or white or asian or latina, don't doubt her abilities.

Assume greatness and deduce from there.

Thanks. :)