i will say that those of us who spent middle school in our bedrooms are better prepared for this moment than those who you know, had friends and did things

staying inside reading chapter books and writing to distant penpals on beatrix potter stationary while i listened over and over to the cast recording of mame? been there, done that, could do it for years

people on instagram are like "is it strange that i talk to my plants?" and i'm like, that's level ONE indoors girl; i was best friends with a fern at 9 years old. talk to me when you've started recreating scenes from frances hodgson burnett novels and playing all the parts

i do want to see my friends, Desperately. but...i've been here before. i didn't go through all of seventh grade eating lunch by myself because a bully constantly made fun of my oversized glasses to not have the fortitude to quarantine

did you ever choreograph a dance all by yourself in your room, and then obsessively rehearse the choreography even though the only audience for your eventual performance would be your exasperated parents who really wanted to get dinner started, but you were like "watch my show"

if so, you just may be my people

there were other varietals of indoor kid (no two are alike!); they did not all have campy middle-aged non-SAG character actor energy like i did. there were the sits quietly and watercolors kids, the "listens to nirvana in the basement" kids, the reads college textbooks kids

the ham radio kids, the pbs kids, the weird bug collectors, the jane austen cosplayers, the comic book hoarders, the lonely ballerinas, the wall-collage makers, the poets

this is our time