there was a time when

was my jam

at age 12, I was officially a geek.

not a cool geek

or a smart geek

I was the kind of geek who wore cat t-shirts because I thought they were cool.

(this might explain why I don’t like cats anymore)

this one was my favorite

so when parents sent me off to summer camp,

it’s no surprise that I wasn’t miss popularity

luckily I was one of those kids

who was perfectly happy striking out on my own adventures

the popular girls did their thing

and I did mine

obviously when it came time to enter the talent show,

I didn’t hesitate to sign up

I didn’t lack

confidence

or

ambition

the only questionable thing I was missing

was probably the most important

talent.

so while the popular girls perfected their spice girls lip-sync

I looked for my talent.

judging from my

brother’s complaints in

the car, I wasn’t any

good at singing.

my inability to do a forward roll ruled out a

gymnastics routine.

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

I settled on the one thing no one else in my cabin could do.

I decided I was going to play my clarinet.

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.

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)

on the night of the talent show,

I took the stage

and played a song that I had committed to memory

the star wars theme song

and believe it or not, I won

I’m pretty sure I was awarded

best comedy act

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.