How It All Started

I don’t know exactly when but at some point in my childhood, I became absolutely fascinated by human behavior. Maybe it started when my brother started coaching me at three years old to be fully aware of my surroundings and to assign markers to locations we were going to. Yes, I was three years old and my 10 year old brother would be grilling me on which side of the freeway the McDonald’s was located on when we’d be exiting to go to my Uncle’s house for dinner. It seemed minor at first but over time, I was looking at everything in my surroundings including people’s behaviors.

It wasn’t long before I was writing a pro’s and con’s list for my aunt as she contemplated marrying her boyfriend or going back to her ex. Spoiler alert, the list showed her that she would lose with either partner so she chose herself and a few years later, said ex-boyfriend came groveling back promising to immediately give her everything she wanted.

I was nine when I wrote that list for her. I was lucky in that my parents generally allowed me to be a part of the adult conversations and I got to witness firsthand how people reacted to the good, the bad, and the ugly. My dad would also put Dr. Laura Schlessinger on the radio for us to listen to while he drove me to school. I loved listening to her dish out brash advice, giving it straight to everyone, and not letting anyone play the victim. It’s rather similar to how I look at life and how I speak to my friends - some say its tough but I just call it real. If we aren’t real with the people that we’re closest with then who can we be real with?