On being 12 years old...again

I can't say I remember much about being 12 years old:

• It was 1986. I was in 7th Grade at Fenton Middle School.

• I was awkward (weren't we all?) and pretty skinny. I hadn't hit my growth spurt yet, so i wasn't super tall; but sill taller than most of the boys my age.

• I was in love with Elizabeth Book.

• I remember crying the night my sister, Alicia went away to college.

• Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B was the secret formula for a successful life.

For the life of me, I can't remeber:

• Who my best friend was (It was probably Jason Church, he was pretty constant through my childhood)

• Getting a lot of pressure from adults to be an adult.

• Loving something so much that it was the only thing I wanted to do.

• Feeling accepted (or even really liked) by people around me.

• Why I listened to Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet instead of Paul Simon's Graceland.

In my latest play, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, I get to play a 12-year-old kid: Leaf Coneybear. While he is awkward and not very self-aware, I still wish 12-year old me would have lived life like Leaf:

• Wide-eyed

• Passionate

• Friendly

• Sensitive

You know, it's not too late to live life with more wonder and less stress. I like that about Leaf.

Tell me about you when you were 12. What were you like? What mattered to you? What happened to that kid?