Today, my colleague and I were talking about someone we know who we think is on the autism spectrum. I remarked that he was better equipped than us to deal with this turbulent world and she remarked that "Yes, the world would be burning but he would be very excited about his blue socks!". I wish I had a world of my own that I had to only occasionally emerge from, or at least a world that I could retreat into whenever I was hot under the collar. An idyll that I could summon on demand,
My earliest memory of an idyll is grade 3. I had started in a new school, transferring from a school I hated from the bottom of my heart. The new school was much bigger than my previous one, and I remember getting lost on my first day and bursting into tears. Not because I was scared of finding my classroom but because I was overwhelmed. But, life improved swiftly after that. My new classrrom was bright and airy, in contrast to the dank, cheerless and overcrowded classrooms I was used to. The new school had a lovely library supervised by a librarian who exuded warmth. And, my new class teacher adored me (in hindsight, she favoured me too much). I was not used to feeling like I mattered in a school environment, and I loved it. We were too young for anyone to bother about our grades and we had plenty of free time. Puberty hadn't hit yet and girls were just girls. Life that year was uncomplicated and I was content.
The new school was big on extracurricular activities, and we were taught a number of English songs in music class that exemplified idylls--"Summer holiday", "Kingstown Town", "Uma Paloma Blanca". But, the song that really stayed with me was "All I want is a place somewhere" (a slight modification of All I Want is A Room Somewhere from My Fair Lady). Whenever I think about that song, it takes me back to Grade 3 and a life as idyllic as I have ever known. I wouldn't say it was all downhill from there, but life definitely became more complicated and decidedly less idyllic in the following years. I am going to reproduce one stanza of that song here for nostalgia's sake:
All I want is a place somewhere,
Far away from the city's smoky air,
Green birds, fresh breeze, birds and flowers,
Wouldn't it be lovely, lovely, lovely
My earliest memory of an idyll is grade 3. I had started in a new school, transferring from a school I hated from the bottom of my heart. The new school was much bigger than my previous one, and I remember getting lost on my first day and bursting into tears. Not because I was scared of finding my classroom but because I was overwhelmed. But, life improved swiftly after that. My new classrrom was bright and airy, in contrast to the dank, cheerless and overcrowded classrooms I was used to. The new school had a lovely library supervised by a librarian who exuded warmth. And, my new class teacher adored me (in hindsight, she favoured me too much). I was not used to feeling like I mattered in a school environment, and I loved it. We were too young for anyone to bother about our grades and we had plenty of free time. Puberty hadn't hit yet and girls were just girls. Life that year was uncomplicated and I was content.
The new school was big on extracurricular activities, and we were taught a number of English songs in music class that exemplified idylls--"Summer holiday", "Kingstown Town", "Uma Paloma Blanca". But, the song that really stayed with me was "All I want is a place somewhere" (a slight modification of All I Want is A Room Somewhere from My Fair Lady). Whenever I think about that song, it takes me back to Grade 3 and a life as idyllic as I have ever known. I wouldn't say it was all downhill from there, but life definitely became more complicated and decidedly less idyllic in the following years. I am going to reproduce one stanza of that song here for nostalgia's sake:
All I want is a place somewhere,
Far away from the city's smoky air,
Green birds, fresh breeze, birds and flowers,
Wouldn't it be lovely, lovely, lovely
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