Growing up, I out ran just about everyone I knew, even those older than me. I could flip around the monkey bars at warp speed. I read by the time I was 4 and in the 1960s this was quite a feat. Kids did not learn to read until 1st grade. I also started kindergarten at age 4. I wore shorts under my dresses and physically did whatever I liked at recess. I also made good grades.
My father and I were like gas and a lit match. “Girls don’t do that!” I realized that he wanted me to be a boy, the boy that my older brother was not. My brother was just not a beer drinking womanizing hunter like his father. Neither was I a tomboy. I liked playing with my stuffed animals and Barbie dolls.
I’m an oddball. It took years to meet a guy who accepted my physicality. I still wore the traditional dress. I even put myself in an abusive relationship just to prove something to myself but what did I prove?
I now know my life has nothing to do with a dress. Even so, I still have my shorts on!