Nicole
I was a boy and she was becoming a woman. She was a couple of years older (I'm guessing) than me. Our conversation has stayed with me for 30 years. The scene was the Cosmo (short for cosmopolitans) swim team picnic, which signaled the end of the season and the last time I'd see these people until school began again. I don't recall my exact age, but it was 10, 11, or 12. Her name was Nicole, and her words still echo in my soul. I was busy running around, having fun, eating candy and being a boy. She grabbed me (literally) and took me aside. She said she knew I didn't want to hear it right now, but someday I would need to know this. She told me to be kind to girls' hearts, to not be like the other boys; don't play games with girls because that's how people get hurt. Here was a barely-a-woman telling this I-just-want-to-be-a-boy- forever how to be a man. I should have heard this from my brothers, should have seen it in my father, anyone but her. But I liste...