A Quote by Douglas Brunt
My parents had the plan for my life from the moment my mother tested positive with me. Looking back now, I'd say the hard turn for me was when I left school after the eighth grade to play tennis full time and study some with a travelling tutor.
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I felt sad because everyday I had to wake up early to practice before going to school. After school I had to go back to tennis again, and then after tennis I had homework. I didn't have time to play.
It's a little crazy. Last year, I was in seventh grade, and we were the babies at the school - 'cause my middle school's eighth grade and seventh grade - and now I'm eighth grade, and all these new students have come in, and they're all like, 'Oh my gosh! Darci Lynne!'
My seventh-grade year, I played football. I was, like, 15 pounds overweight, so I had to lose a ton of weight. They put me at left tackle; they put me on the defensive line. I absolutely hated football. I didn't want to play again. Eighth grade year, I didn't play.
My mother had been a grade-school teacher, and my father had an eighth-grade education.
My parents both had eighth-grade educations. My mother had five kids by the time she was 23, and my father was a truck driver.
When it came to healthy eating, my parents did their best to set me on the right path. At school, my friends ate McDonalds at lunchtime, but I had a packed lunch that my mother made for me. I hated it at the time, but looking back, I'm glad.
After my parents got divorced, I had to go right into public school in the fourth grade. The Steiner school had never really taught me how to read, so it was a rude awakening. I was playing catch-up the whole time.
I was playing sports all the time, and my parents, Anne and John, encouraged me to play in grade school and high school.
I never went to high school. I never really finished eighth grade. I was kicked out of seventh grade once and eighth grade twice. Mainly for not showing up and not doing it. Then I went to an alternative high school for part of what would have been ninth grade and part of what would have been 10th grade.
My childhood neighbor played piano, and he told me we'd get all the girls if I learned how to play-and I was probably in eighth grade, going into high school, so I said, 'Sign me up.'
I was not good in school. I could never read very fast or very well. I got tested for learning disabilities, for dyslexia. Then I got put on Ritalin and Dexedrine. I took those starting in the eighth grade. As soon as they pumped that drug into me, it would focus me right in.
My parents wanted me and my siblings to practice some sports outside school. And since we lived next to a tennis club, we decided to play tennis. I didn't have an idol, so to speak, but I always enjoyed watching Pete Sampras and Alex Corretja.
In eighth grade, I went to home school, but it was a program meant for stay-at-home moms, and both my parents worked, so I had to grade my own papers. I'd be like, 'Ah man, you're close enough, you get 100 percent!'
My eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Pabst, had done her master's thesis on Tolkien. She showed me how the trilogy was patterned after Norse mythology. She was also the first person to encourage me to submit stories for publication. The idea of writing a fantasy based on myths never left me, and many years later, this would lead me to write Percy Jackson.
I don't think I'd be exaggerating to say that the essence of who I am today is a result of the weight training. It's made me and given me the life that I have. And it goes way back to the eighth grade getting cut, your friends telling you that you can't do it, and you telling yourself that you can.
I guess travelling that kind of long distance and travelling at such a slow pace, it wasn't something that I was thinking about when I was inside of the cistern, but when I started hearing the music played back to me for the first time by an ensemble, it totally brought me back, immediately, to memories of sailing. And it really became apparent that this was some sort of a through line in my life that I was excited to explore more.
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