I was so driven in high school but did sometimes wish I could go out with friends, go to parties, and be a normal teenager. But having mum as my coach at home meant I couldn't sneak around.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
As a child, I liked to play outside, to stroll through the fields, and I was an active member of the local children's gang, frequently being chased by field guards and building supervisors. Nevertheless, my performance at school was very good, and mainly due to the influence of my mother, I was allowed to attend high school.
My mom was always keen I stayed in school and got good grades, and she was always keen for me to do medicine. I used to go to drama classes when I was younger, and she would always take me. But when I got to an age when I decided it was what I wanted to do, when she accepted it, she had actually been the most supportive person ever.
In high school, I was kind of a loner because I had moved to a new school.
I wasn't the high-school play queen or anything. And my parents would let not me act until I graduated from college.
I went to an all-girls school, and I always felt like I missed out on a traditional high-school life.
Me in high school, I was kind of a loner. I had a handful of friends. I'd eat my lunch in my car every day in my senior year. I went to ballet. I was a ballerina, so I was very focused on that. You kind of have to be. That was two-thirds of my week, going to ballet class.
There was a point when I was very young where I remember talking with my mom about going to drama school and this was maybe when I was 8, 9, 10 years old - and she knew that I was also academically very capable, and she steered me in another direction.
I saw myself as an outsider as a teen. I was home-schooled and got my G.E.D. when I was 16; I wasn't interested in high school at all and figured that college might be more entertaining.
Growing up, I had a very busy social life. It wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I asked Mama if I could come into the kitchen and have her teach me how to cook something.
Growing up in high school, I wasn't hanging out with friends every day or on the weekends. Doing normal high school kid things was something I was willing to give up.