I was very SPIRITUAL as a KID. I THINK I felt and thought about THINGS a lot more deeply than most of the other kids my age. I wanted to help PEOPLE.

Since I'm homeschooled, I don't GET much KID interaction, so I STARTED at this gym and I got to meet other kids. I ACTUALLY met one of my best FRIENDS there; we hang out all the time.

My kids STILL THINK that, you KNOW, other kids' parents are COOLER than I am.

I had to do a lot of STUDYING 'cause I had to learn NEW languages all the time. So it was a little bit painful watching other KIDS play OUTSIDE, and I'm STUCK at home learning something.

What I REMEMBER most vividly was the SENSE of ALWAYS being a LITTLE behind the other kids in class - that sense of I wasn't cut out for class or I wasn't cut out to read.

When I was a KID, both my MOM and my dad worked night shifts, so we would spend a lot of time at my grandfather's HOUSE. He taught at UCLA and was just REALLY into history. Before bed, when other kids heard fairy TALES, he would tell us about the American founding fathers and the beginning of democracy.

I didn't know what gay was. There was no such THING when I was growing up. I knew I had crushes on BOYS, but I didn't think there was anything WRONG with that until I STARTED to hear about it from the other kids in school.

I was ECCENTRIC, even as a KID. I was an early READER, an early talker. I was very CURIOUS in a way that maybe the other kids weren't. I was a little more outgoing.