Each one of us is unique and can be identified by a finger print or DNA. Personality and lifestyle combine with genetics to make each individual distinctive. I can cite several things that have contributed to my being different.
When I was bussed to the new Durand Junior High School and joined the seventh-grade class of more than 30 pupils, I was the only one who didn’t have a sibling and did still have my tonsils. It was an era when tonsillectomies were as much a part of childhood as losing baby teeth. But my parents didn’t believe in surgery unless absolutely necessary.
In high school, I began dating Ken, who’s still the man in my life. The year I graduated, 1955, Vladimir Nabokov published his best-selling novel, “Lolita,” pronounced with a long “E” sound. Dad had named me Lolita with a long “I” sound. Apparently, I’m the only one who says it that way–I’m always correcting strangers who think they know how to enunciate my name.
Some of my habits set me apart; I enjoy my own company. The advent of COVID forced people to be homebound instead of working and socializing with others. It didn’t make much difference in my life–I was used to spending most of my time in our house. When I go shopping in the city, I eat lunch alone in a nice restaurant. Looking around the dining room, I’m the only person sitting at a table for one.
Although I’m a writer, I’ve always enjoyed working with numbers. At conferences of wordsmiths, I’ve found the others abhor math. At a recent gathering of grandmothers, the conversation drifted to helping grade-schoolers with homework. The group agreed–arithmetic story problems were the worst. I’ve always found story problems fun.
What attributes make you unique?
I’ve been trying to think how I might be unique, & it takes some thinking. One way was that not a lot of kids, let alone girls went onto college from our Orfordville community. Also, though I wasn’t the first OHS graduate to graduate from the UW, I may have been the second. I have tried to research this situation, but, so far, have not been successful.
Other than one aunt, I am the only genealogist in my extended family.
I am the only one who married a military man & lived many places.
I also have traveled more than any other relative that I know about.
I seem to have a higher pain tolerance than most.