A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

These pieces took thought and hard work, but unlike my stories, I felt like I didn’t have to put my secret heart into them. I began to write more nonfiction, mostly articles for my high school yearbook and newspaper. He laughed at my story and his laughter stung. A boy in my class thought one of the words I used was “weird” and that I was weird as a result.

I described my excitement, that tingling sensation I got anticipating the presents I knew would be under the tree the next morning. I remember once, I wrote a story about how I felt on Christmas Eve. And sometimes, that will make you feel very bad. Not everyone will like every story you write. All through elementary school and junior high I wrote short stories and plays and poems. Nothing made me feel more special than hearing an audience cheer for a character I had written. Even better? I got to read it out loud to my classmates, who laughed at the funny parts and cheered when Superbox fought off the evil potato chip can that was his mortal enemy. One story, SUPERBOX, was about a crime-fighting shoe box. But writing stories was fun! And often people liked what I wrote.Īt Oakbrook Elementary, I wrote lots of poems and stories. I tried ballet dancing and singing and playing musical instruments, but I wasn’t very good at any of those things. Other times, though, I wanted to be different - to shine, to have people see me as special. It made me feel normal, when I worried I wasn’t. I was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in a suburban house that looked like all the others on my street.

This was from the About Me section at Linda Urban's website.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban