Social MEdia

I definately got it from my father. Whether he could control it or not was not my problem. And although it was a characteristic inherited on his side, my mother allowed it to run freely without inhibitions. I coined the phrase 'viral' even before social media was created.

From the time the sun came up in the morning, until the stars came out at night, I was a banshee on the run. I was never one of those toddlers who would sit quietly on their own, busying themselves with blocks, toys or paper and pen. Not one of those children who could occupy their time with their parents and siblings for hours on end. Not the normal offspring of a mild-mannered couple who wanted their daughter to read and write at the tender age of four.

I was Social MEdia, running out into the world, revealing the happenings in my home to anyone that would listen to me. I could not sit still. I could not revel in my own silence. I needed people. I needed attention. I needed the spotlight. Such a far cry from who I am today where somedays my solace can only be found in silence, where privacy is a God-given right, where the thought of someone knowing all my secrets would make me cringe and wrap myself into a fetal position and blanket my mind and soul from the glare of the spotlight.

At age four, I did not care. I wanted to shout out to the world who I was.

With the ability to ride a two-wheeler bicycle, I would wolf down my breakfast and tear out to the garage to the wheels of freedom. That bike would call to me the entire night and I would dream I was travelling to another world when I took it every morning on the daily trek around my neighborhood. There were days at 6am there would be not a soul awake and I would take my bike out those early summer mornings with my mother sitting on the front step, yawning and knitting. My father would wake up at his usual time, discover my absence and let my mother have it. She would quietly knit while he barked out orders about preventing me from 'exiting the building'.

When I would return for pit stops and gas (bathroom breaks, snacks, change of clothes) he would grab and officially ground me. I was not to move from either my bedroom or family room. But since he had many things to do inside and outside the house, my inevitable departure could not be intercepted.

I would meet all my friends around the neighborhood and we would spend the day together. When they had to go in for lunch and dinner, I would reluctantly wait outside their houses, sitting on my bike. I knew if I went home, my father would jail me once again. Out of sheer pity, many of the parents would invite me in and I would eat all sorts of divine cuisine, some of which I was prohibited to eat. But I did not care. This was my only chance to try see, hear and feel the lives of other people besides that which I encountered on a daily basis in my own home, boring me to tears. I cried to others about my father's imprisonment, his steadfast stance on rules and my impending doom each day upon my return. I would speak to anyone who would listen. If the parents of my friends heard me, some would even approach my father for explaination.

Those nights the punishment was two-fold. After explaining to them that he was a social worker and that he would never beat me up and hang me from my ankles until dawn, he would revert to sitting me down with a tired look on his face and beg me to stop conjuring up these stories. OK, so I was guilty of exaggerating the truth. But the amazement and utter shock in the faces of the people I spoke to was euphoric. To command the attention of my audience and have them hanging on to every word I said made me feel worthy. My mother did the same but her reaction was nonchalance--she knew my beguiling behaviour.

For others, my stories were legendary. Intriguing. Breathtaking. And completely fabricated. I was like the neighborhood newspaper delivery girl. Throwing a new story on each doorstep. One they would read and then discard that same day. But I got the message out. However way I could. I was the Newsmaker.

I was Social MEdia.