Middle School

Pity for oneself as a child feels more pardonable than pity for the current model, and is almost as satisfying. And narratives of one’s former loserhood are always, to a degree, a form of self-flattery, since like the origin tales of costumed heroes they proceed by drawing a contrast between Before and After, and take for granted the presence, in the unformed embryonic superbeing, of seeds of greatness.