Once, back when it was socially acceptable to have blue tongues and sticky hands and stuffed animals whose names were derived from the formula of adding a y-suffix to whatever animal they resembled, I wanted to be a microbiologist. Which would remain the only hexasyllabic word in my repertoire for quite some time. I would travel far and wide, searching for rare specimens of bacteria and examining bdelloid rotifers under a microscope. Knowing about an invisible world that actually existed made me feel powerful, until the ghosts of the future chased those dreams back to Neverland. These ghosts became more real.
a note from zee:
It is with great pleasure that I share this piece with you today, in celebration of Weiwei Luo, who is graduating from Ithaca High School this month and will soon be leaving for Princeton University. She and I have written together for many years, in the teen group at the public library and in the word/play group at my studio. She wrote this delightful paragraph many months ago and I've re-read it frequently since then, taking pleasure in her words every time.
