Just finished watching the Richard Linklater movie that tells the story of a boy’s adolescence by filming scenes over the course of twelve years, using the same actors. Movie was good. I mean, the pacing dragged a bit, especially in the final act, but it was really good. It did what it was supposed to do, which was make us feel the weight of passing time.

I always feel a little bit bad when I watch or read movies bout peoples’ childhoods, because my childhood contained none of these rites of passage: no keggers in houses where the parents were gone from the weekend; no dates; no illicit beer-drinking; no sex. Not only did I fail to do anything particularly rebellious or life-affirming, it’s also not like I spent all my time learning and gaining, like, skills and interests. I mostly just played computer games and read Dungeons and Dragons manuals (I didn’t even really play D&D….I just read the manuals).

I didn’t have a bad childhood. It wasn’t unhappy. And it actually served me in pretty good stead in many ways. Lots of things that I did or learned in childhood redounded to me in a decent way. But still, sigh.