PART 1 Summary

Trevor was voracious and hyperactive in his childhood. He had a criminal and cop relationship with his mother. When tricks no longer worked on Trevor, his mother changed tactics and started writing him letters in cases of misbehaviors or whooping his ass in cases of major infractions. When receiving an accusatory missive, Trevor would write counterarguments in reply. This process could go back and forth for days.

At Maryvale, whenever Trevor found loopholes in a Catholic rule, he would find his way around it. For example, he was not allowed to communion because he's not Catholic. He thought the rule was illogical and he was dying for grape juice and crackers offered in communion. Therefore, he broke the rules by furtively drinking an entire bottle of grape juice and an entire bag of Eucharist. A priest turned Trevor in and thus he ended up being punished by the school and sent to a shrink. Before long, Trevor quitted school after the principal threatened to expel him if he did not shape up. To his surprise, his mother did not give him a good hiding but instead sided with him. Among other claims to fame, Trevor was notorious for burning down a white family's house where his mother's boyfriend Abel rented a garage. One of Trevor's uncle even dubbed him "Terror".

Trevor inherited from his mother the ability to forget the pain. In spite of numerous hidings he got, he never shrunk from trying something new.

PART 2 Expressions

1. At my gran’s house I always got seconds, which none of the other kids got.

seconds: 第二份食物；还可以表示“次品”--clothes or other goods that are cheaper than usual because they are not perfect

2. I prided myself on being the ultimate prankster.

prankster: someone who plays tricks on people to make them look silly

prank: a trick  eg. a childish prank

3. Someday I’m going to catch you and put you away or the rest of your life.

put sb away: informal, to put sb in a prison or in a mental hospital

If you are found guilty, the judge is going to put you away for life.

4. My mom was forever trying to rein me in.

rein sb in: 1. to make a horse go more slowly by pulling on the reins

2. to start to control a situation more strictly

The government is reining in public expenditure.

5. If we were having a real, full-on argument or if I’d gotten in trouble at school, I’d find more accusatory missives waiting for me when I got home.

missive: a letter. often used humorously

An anonymous missive had been pushed under her door.

Vs Correspondence: the letters that someone sends and receives, especially official or business letters

A secretary came in twice a week to deal with his correspondence.

6. For major infractions, my mom went with the ass-whooping.

infraction: an act of breaking a rule of law

minor infractions of the rules

On his way he was stopped by the traffic police for some real or invented infraction.

7. My mom would have given me proper sit-down hidings if I’d given her the opportunity, but she could never catch me.

hiding: spoken, beating, a severe physical punishment

You'll get a good hiding when you come home!

get a good hiding

8. She got her licks in where she could, her belt or maybe a shoe, administered on the fly.

lick: informal, an act of hitting sb

on the fly:  while dealing with a situation, rather than before dealing with it

So far, policy is being made on the fly.

9. The third visit to the shrink, and the last straw, came in grade six.

shrink: (n.) 心理医生, headshrinker 的简称

the last straw/ the straw that breaks the camel's back: the last problem in a series of problems that finally makes you give up, get angry etc

Making me work late on Friday was the last straw. 

10. I think he thought he was giving me an ultimatum that would get me to shape up.

shape up: 1. to improve one's behavior or work

Your kids had better shape up, because I'm in no mood to fool around.

2. to make progress in a particular way

Ken's plans for the business are shaping up nicely.

shape up or ship out: spoken, used to tell sb that if they do not improve, they will be made to leave a place or their job

PART 3 Thoughts

But I was blessed with another trait I inherited from my mother: her ability to forget the pain in life. I remember the thing that caused the trauma, but I don't hold on to the trauma. I never let the memory of something painful prevent me from trying something new. If you think too much about the ass-kicking your mom gave you, or the ass-kicking that life gave you, you'll stop pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules. It's better to take it, spend some time crying, then wake up the next day and move on. You'll have a few bruises and they'll remind you of what happened and that's okay. But after a while the bruises fade, and they fade for a reason-because now it's time to get up to some shit again.

“好了伤疤忘了疼”这句话人们常用来做反面教材，而Trevor却说这是他一个很重要的能力。最近刚读完Patrick Modinano的《青春咖啡馆》，小说里的女主人公Rouge整个青春都在逃离她不幸的童年，她无数次出走，隐姓埋名但结果却是在童年的不幸里越陷越深，她曾有一个稳定的婚姻，也有一个真心爱她的情人，但是她母亲的不幸和父亲的缺失始终像梦魇一样缠绕着她，她越是幸福和安稳越是不堪承受回忆之痛。最后在她和情人即将展开幸福生活的时候，她选择了跳窗自杀。现实里也有很多时候我们沉浸在过去的伤痛里无法自拔，比如因为曾经失败的婚姻而不敢再去相信爱情，因为曾经失败的事业而不敢再去折腾，因为曾被信赖的人背叛过而不敢再去相信身边的人，等等，即使那些事情已经不再产生现实意义上的影响，但我们仍会用自己过去的伤痛来束缚今天的自己。但如果我们能抛下过去，不管那些新的尝试是否成功，但至少我们会获得内心的轻松和平和。节日期间看了几期《极速前进》，看到我的女神贾静雯脸上洋溢的幸福真的好羡慕和倾佩她，还记得曾经娱乐新闻里经常是她以泪洗面的样子，如今她真正地放下了曾经的伤痛并收获了美好的爱情、重获了快乐。想起了Oscar Wilde的一句话：“过去的事情唯一可爱之处在于它已经过去。”("The one charm of the past is that it is the past.") 所有伤痛和不幸的最好结局是：一切已成为过去，而我已重新在路上。