I have never been considered "normal" by society (although we could have an extensive chat of what "normal" means), and now I like it, but when I was a kid, was a total nightmare not fitting absolutely anywhere. The other kids were not scared of me, but kept their distance considering me "eccentric", with very strange likes and manners.
I remember clearly how much I enjoyed instrumental music, and artsy films at a very young age, and that I could appreciate the ballet and the opera (to mention some things). My father was a musician so when I was around 4 years old I could perfectly distinguish between Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, and I also could solve over 500 pieces jigsaw puzzles and I was really good at playing chess (which is ironic because now I totally suck at chess).
I also remember that for some reason that my parents could never figure out, I loved classical paintings, and I found a collection of books that was amazing because it had stories for children, illustrated by classical painters (they adapted their paintings to make a story out of it), such as Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, El Greco, Picasso, and many more. I had to have them all. So, even though I could not read yet, I spent hours passing the pages of each book, memorizing the pieces and of course, the name of each painter. My favorite one was Picasso's. So, I must have been around 4 years old, and my mother and I were in some kind of expo (I remember the scene clearly) and there was this Picasso's reproduction. I was all excited and pointed at it screaming "Paloma!" (the name of the painting). All the people there, that were adults stared at me with "what the f...?" face... and a man came to my mom asking her if I had taken lessons. My mom said proud/blushed, that I memorized them all on my own. Then I kept on running, pointing at different pieces screaming the name of the painter.
However, I had a very dark side as a kid (I am not saying that dark is bad), always interested in horror, pain, dark stories, mythology (that can be very grim), and many other things, and all those secret likes joined me the rest of my life, until today... and the question was "why do I like horror (to try to say it with a word) so much?". And I think I am starting to solve the equation.
