life, unadulterated
can you please tell my ego that I am the best parent in the world? or better still, I'll tell it to go take an offing hike.
The first two decades or so of my life were quite literally a string of first ranks and A grades and gold medals and merit certificates and awards and prizes. Anything that I failed to make a mark in (arts and crafts, for instance) was conveniently brushed aside as irrelevant