Grapevine Magazine

I HATE BEING LEFT BEHIND. I still recall that panicky feeling of scrambling to catch up on schoolwork if I missed a few days; that feeling that everyone knew what to do except me. I felt I lagged behind my mates at important milestones: they got their drivers’ license before me, owned cars before I did, and were dating girls while I stammered with shyness. Perhaps if I had objectively looked at the whole range of my peers, I probably wouldn’t have been slow at reaching those goals; I was probably typical, but I did the very typical thing of comparing myself with those who excel.
I consoled myself with a little fib that being left behind on the sports field or dance floor was of no concern to me because I excelled at something else – being a nerd. My nerdy heart especially thrilled at computers, like the ones on sci-fi TV shows: huge glamorous machines covered with flashing lights and switches and spinning reels of tape. Star Trek, Lost in Space, Thunderbirds, Voyage to the Bottom of Sea … no spaceship or nuclear sub was complete without an electronic brain. And so, with high expectations, I joined Mr. Felton’s Computer Club at high school…

[READ JOHN COWAN’S WHOLE ARTICLE HERE: https://www.grapevine.org.nz/articles/left-behind/ ]

The Crispy Bits: Left behind - Grapevine Magazine MY PARENTS ABANDONED ME. As a child, my family locked up their remote Bethells Beach bach and started the trek back along the beach to go home. I was still in the bach, immersed in a comic in some corner. I resurfaced to find the place dark, deserted, and dead-locked. Terror! I escaped through a win...