family lore has it that i have always been very independent. as a toddler, i refused to hold anyone’s hand when crossing the street. so my dad had to be creative: he convinced me to hold onto his belt loops instead. thankfully, i wasn’t an impulsive kid, which is probably why i’m still here to write about it. when i was little more than a year old, my mom would take me to visit her parents ― normally 15 minutes on foot.

but apparently i thought i was much too mature to sit in a stroller; i had to push it, so the walk took over an hour. and i’m told that i would run up to other babies sitting in their strollers and pat them, saying, “baby!” even when they were actually my elders.