I grew up in the southwest, in the city of Tucson, Arizona. I hated it. I don’t like the heat, and Tucson summers are HOT. 110 or 115 is a common high temperature for a day anywhere from June to August, and it is often over 100 starting in March through October. I suffered through a day in Phoenix that was 122. The winters can’t really be called winters. They aren’t cold. They get “ chilly” but never really cold for more than a couple of days at a time. I missed out on all the winter childhood experiences like snowball fights and building snowmen, and having snow days at school.
All my life I have adored winter. It is my favorite season by far. I also like rainy days, overcast days, windy days… about the only kind of weather I don’t really care for is hot or clear days where the sun is so bright it hurts my eyes. I had my fill of blue skies in my 25 years in Arizona. I don’t need to see them ever again.
I was raised by my mother, an attorney, and our housemate, a woman named Sonia. My parents were divorced around the time I was a year old. For a couple of years, my dad lived in Phoenix, where he went to school, but then he moved out of state, first to Dallas, TX, and then to Florida where he lived until 2006, and then recently to Tennessee where he now lives with his new family.
I saw my dad every summer for a few weeks or sometimes a month or two. I also flew up to New England to visit both sets of grandparents every summer. Every few years, I’d visit my grandparents for Christmas, too, so I did get to see snow sometimes.
I went to school starting at age two, when I attended a school for gifted children. I went to a nearby elementary school for a year, but then for second grade my mom sent me clear across town to a small Christian school. I did not fit in. Coming as I did from a liberal household, I was teased and hated both for my family’s politics and for my own personality. I have always been a bit different.
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