1. there was a time when
was my jam

2. at age 12, I was officially a geek.

3. not a cool geek

4. or a smart geek

5. I was the kind of geek who wore cat t-shirts because I thought they were cool.
this one was my favorite
(this might explain why I don’t like cats anymore)

6. so when parents sent me off to summer camp,
it’s no surprise that I wasn’t miss popularity

7. luckily I was one of those kids
who was perfectly happy striking out on my own adventures

8. the popular girls did their thing
and I did mine

9. obviously when it came time to enter the talent show,
I didn’t hesitate to sign up

10. I didn’t lack
confidence
or
ambition
the only questionable thing I was missing
was probably the most important
talent.

11. so while the popular girls perfected their spice girls lip-sync
I looked for my talent.

12. judging from my
brother’s complaints in
the car, I wasn’t any
good at singing.

13. my inability to do a forward roll ruled out a
gymnastics routine.

14. and most of my jokes never made it to the punchline.

15. I settled on the one thing no one else in my cabin could do.
I decided I was going to play my clarinet.

16. looking back now,
I’m a firm believer that you should have to be at
least 21 years of age before playing the clarinet
if ever.

17. at 12, I thought I was a musical genius
when I played my clarinet, beautiful sounds came out
(if only I knew what everyone else in the room was hearing)

18. on the night of the talent show,
I took the stage
and played a song that I had committed to memory

19. the star wars theme song

20. and believe it or not, I won

21. I’m pretty sure I was awarded
best comedy act

22. but I’ve never seen my parents quite as proud
as they were the night I showed the world
that star wars was my jam.