For an assignment this past week, I had to research and emulate Charles Schultz, creating autobiographical Peanuts-style strips. So I’ve been reading Peanuts and listening to the theme music on youtube and thinking about my family’s semi-yearly watching of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, and trying to figure out what experiences of mine fit into the world of Charlie Brown.
I have a pretty easy time identifying with this character. I’m often socially awkward and shy, and throughout middle school and high school I felt like an outsider who would never understand my fellow students. I was rarely bullied, but I did get teased for being quiet and for not engaging or interacting. Mostly people left me alone.
Returning to those memories–particularly while focusing on the times I felt like an outcast instead of focusing on the good times I had with my friends–is harder than I thought it would be. Who knew I would still have such strong reactions to things that happened in middle school? But I guess I do. And though I am more confident now, spent the last four years in a community where I fit in, and am happily settling into another community where I’m not the strange kid who never talks, comic strips about not being able to connect with the other kids are surprisingly easy to write.
It has me thinking, maybe I should have been reading Peanuts in middle school. Maybe it would have made me sad to read, or maybe I wouldn’t have made the connection between my frustration and Charlie Brown’s. But maybe it would have given me the feeling of connection I got from other works when I started reading webcomics in high school.
Just thoughts.
Click here to read my strips.