Patrick Robbins:
CLASS OF 1985
Byng High SchoolClass of 1985
Ada, OK
Harvard UniversityClass of 1989
Boston, MA
Patrick's Story
REVISED 8/5/2009
Life
Hey there, everybody!
I'm a queer boy. In other words, gay. As if I really have to tell most of you ... by which I mean that you probably had a plethora of suspicions way back then. And yes, I've known I was gay since I was three, although I tried everything I could to crush my heart's desire into dust so I wouldn't have to face the fact. I'm willing to help out anyone who may be trying to deal with such issues, including transgender ones. Feel free to check out the Byng High LGBTQI alumni group I've established on MySpace. You can also search for my profile there under my name and I believe you'll find it.
Since I've posted quite a bit on MySpace, I'm reluctant to indulge in much more verbosity here. But here's life since Byng in a nutshell:
Despite having suffered from poor health (no, not HIV/AIDS, though I've worked with people who have it and have worked to prevent its spread) during the past two decades, I was graduated in 1990 from Harvard with a degree in English. (I took a year off between junior and senior years.) After puttering about with writing and working in bookstores, I went off to Japan for four years, taught ESL, and headed a project to write and edit four intermediate-to-advanced ESL textbooks and their accompanying teacher's manuals. In 2000, I was forced to return to the States because my health worsened again. I've been here ever since, reading/researching; writing; and freelance editing, writing, and indexing. Usually once every couple of months I have the chance to go down to Chicago for a delightful weekend with my niece (7) and nephew (10). (Maybe someday soon I'll post a pic of them here for your perusal, but if you go to MySpace....)
I've done a bit of acting through the years as well. The most interesting part I played was in a modernization of "Dracula." My main part in it was the Van Helsing character that Hugh Jackman played in the film of the same name, but my Van Helsing was a drug addict with Tourette's and "verbal dyslexia," which meant that I had to learn a whole new version of English and curse a lot while poking myself with fake syringes and fighting the most dangerous vam...Expand for more
pire of lore. Thank goodness it was a comedy! I'm now helping some women in the community get a women's theater company off the ground.
Yeah, I've had a couple boyfriends over the years (and a handful of unrequited loves), but no one special now. The past few years have yielded only a few dates. I would have thought Madison, Wisconsin, would be full of men who'd be compatible with me, but such appears NOT to be the case. Part of the problem is that I find that too many haven't dealt with their baggage, so they act far too illy willy-nilly silly for my tastes. (I'm all for GOOD silliness, e.g., tickling, pillow fighting, displaying affection in a relatively safe public place, making my boyfriend crack up so much in a laid-back restaurant that he practically snarfs all over the table, etc.) I also like a boyfriend to read and stay politically active in moderate to left-wing ways, but reading apparently isn't something most gay men like to do. In that way, I suppose they're as typically American as they come!
I don't really suffer fools gladly, though I don't scream at them the way some knee-jerkers do. I do, however, find it harder and harder as I grow older to do anything but tell the truth as I see it, even if I try to do it without rancor. Nevertheless, if you speak the truth, no matter how much sugar goes with it, people so often react in the vilest ways. Although a good trait in an artist, it isn't in certain other "professions," is it? Oy vey.
On a sadder note, my father has just had a serious accident abroad that required two brain surgeries. He's been in a coma since about an hour after the accident (almost three weeks). In just a few more days, he and Mom will finally be able to come back. Of course we are hoping for a swift awakening and a shortish recuperation and rehabilitation that brings him a good quality of life, but it's really anyone's guess about what will happen. He's no spring or even summer/fall chicken: he'll be 80 next week.
I'll leave it at that. All the best to you and yours (unless, perhaps, you're a rabid zombie who thinks, for instance, that Obama isn't an American citizen),
P.
pbrobbins789 at yahoo dot com
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