>>36846107My mother was insane, somewhat abusive by way of offering conflicting instructions and then yelling at the resulting failure in genuine stupid frustration. My father's favorite method of teaching me about the world was to tell me nothing while waiting for me to ignore any of his explicit instructions, which he wouldn't remember having given me, and do things better myself. When I was very small and had no concept of romance, I once placed a kiss on the cheek of a local friend who was also male, and proceeded to have no local friends. When I was somewhat less small I placed a kiss on the cheek of a girl at school, and proceeded to be rejected by the local parenting hivemind, with the exception of the parent of that girl, as well. A slightly more well connected, older, and richer child decided to make it his life's mission to be a total shithead to me while convincing his mother that I was actually bullying him, making my relationship with the educational bureaucracy somewhat strained.
These things didn't happen all at the same time. These things had little temporary exceptions, bright spots, social strategies built as cope. It is easy to guess, I read books for fun, because that's what I had. That was my entertainment, and my allowed social exposure.
So strange, that. Who would guess that I would be attracted to a show where a bookworm gets accepted by a community and grows to understand the things she had not learned before, in her isolation.
Why ever would I want to watch that?