I Learned That If You Want To

The Person In This Picture Is Really Me.

I Was Desperate For Something To Read That Dealt Realistically With Teenage Life, And I Thought Others Might Be, Too.

They Used To Be Buddies, I Thought, They Used To Be Friends, And Now They Hate Each Other Because One Has To Work For A Living And The Other Comes From The West Side. They Shouldn't Hate Each Other.

I Guess I Just Couldn't See Standing There -- Alive, Talking, Thinking, Breathing, Being -- One Second, And Dead The Next. It Really Bothered Me. Death By Violence Isn't The Same As Dying Any Other Way, Accident Or Disease Or Old Age. It Just Ain't The Same.

Sometimes, I Feel Like I Spent The First Part Of My Life Wishing To Be A Teen-age Boy, And The Second Part Condemned To Being One.