Test Taking Fool
Jim Dodge
It’s a weird story, that I got an appointment to the Coast Guard Academy, because I’m a White male test taking fool. And I had done really good on the — they call it the service exam, or the service school exam, West Point — I was trying to get in West Point at the time, but I ended up — Coast Guard Academy. And I was filling out the form, and there was a question about — the question was, “When did your menstrual cycle start?” And then there was a little parenthesis, and it said, “If you’re a male, don’t make a fool out of yourself by answering this question.”
And suddenly I went, you know — that’s what I hated about the military is telling you when you — what made you a fool. And that was something that I wanted to figure out my foolishness by myself. So, I just tore it up, and declined entrance. Actually I can remember that moment so vividly. Don’t tell me when to make a fool out of myself.