I was a huge dork in middle school when I hit puberty, and I used to read the encyclopedia for fun. That's how I discovered Renaissance art and all those big ladies. Titian in particular awakened something me at the age of puberty. "Concert Champetre."
Then our family went on a trip to Disneyland. And if you know anything about American theme parks, they are full of extremely fat ladies. At the hotel swimming pool there was this massive fat girl my age who came up to me swimming underwater, fast and graceful. She chatted me up, and bragged about her swimming skills and her star role on the swim team. She told me she was so good at swimming because she was full of blubber like a whale.
WTF how are you so cool?! I thought.
On a motorway ride, there were groups of fat girls blowing me kisses as I was ready to drive, and it made me feel like a hero.
Then on the way back, our family was separated on other ends of the plane, and I ended up seated next to another random fat girl my age, isolated from her family as well. She was bragging about how she dealt with bully boys at school by shoving them into the lockers. I was so awed, I got her number and promised to call. I did, but her mom wouldn't allow her to talk with me because she was strict and conservative and didn't want strange boys dialing the house.
But it all awoke something in me, and it's all come true with the right person.
1 year