YA Outside the Lines

  They say you always become what you hate. People who were bullied in middle school become tormentors as high school seniors. Teens who railed against their parents' unfair rules enforce the same ones on their own children. Liberals become more conservative over twenty years without changing a single opinion. As a teen, I was a complete anarchist. That is to say, I'd carve the anarchist A into every blank surface of my high school. I'd wear shirts with Lee Harvey Oswald on them and say things that would get me on a list today. I'd smart off to teachers and be barely civil to police officers. Of course I became a teacher. Kind of selling out. But change comes from within, right? I had a shitty education, it was time to do things right. Hey, a teacher can be cool, right? Right? But apparently, that wasn't enough. Last April, I was elected to the city council of my town of about 15,000 people. I unseated the mayor pro tem, who'd been on the council over 30 years. ...