Henry Jenkins:  

Life I was born in Atlanta, Georgia to dirt poor college students. I was a quiet, well behaved little kid who almost never went outside or got his hands dirty. I played a lot of Nintendo with my friends. We moved all over the country - from Georgia to Iowa and Wisconsin before settling for a while in the Boston area (where my parents still live.) In the seventh grade I was just about the coolest kid in school because I was the first to ask a girl out and people thought I was independent and smart. But my parents hated the public school system so they pulled me out of the system and put me in home schooling for a year. Worst mistake of my life. By the time I came back I was so shy and sheltered and depressed that I was incredibly uncomfortable around kids my own age. For a while I didn't talk to anyone. Then I tried to really dive in head first and put myself out there socially but I really just made an ass out of myself. You either loved me or you hated me. And sometimes you went back and forth on it three times a day. But there was no one who didn't know exactly who I was. When I graduated I went off to California film school. I didn't really know where I was going with my life or how I was going to use the incredible opportunities that awaited me. But I had a golden ticket. I knew that much. I took nothing but film classes my first year and got nothing but A's (well, almost.) But my time there was otherwise a disaster as everywhere I turned I found an unfriendly face and somebody who was trying to use me or change me. I hated California - the superficiality I found there, the disdain for intellect - so I transfered after a year to The George Washington University. But there was no peace for me there either as I developed a serious case of depression. I barely got out of bed for a year. I was tired all the time. Couldn't see things ever getting any better. But it's always darkest just before the dawn. That Summer my father and I went on a trip to Australia and Ne...Expand for more