remembering my childhood
“I want to be just like you” Growing up, Sedaris had a good life. He had a loving family that supported him and made sure he was well taking care of. Sedaris’ friend, Hugh had a very difficult lifestyle. When Hugh was growing up as a child, he saw things that children should not be forced to witness. Hugh’s class took a field trip to a slaughterhouse one day, where they were treated to a pig’s execution. “…One of the brothers drew a pistol from his back pocket, held it against the animal’s temple, and shot the piglet, execution-style.” (Paragraph 6, page 109) At another occasion, Hugh witnesses a dead man on a telephone pole. “Unlike me, he left the theater two hours later, to find a dead man hanging from a telephone pole at the far end of the unpaved parking lot.” (Paragraph 10, page 110) Hugh was often neglected by this family and spent majority of his adolescence with surrogate parents. Hugh’s life wasn’t the not good at all but Sedaris wanted Hugh’s life. Sedaris describes why he believed his childhood was so bland in comparison to his friend Hugh’s childhood. Sedaris compared his childhood to Hugh’s childhood so much until he started to envy Hugh. Sedaris stated, “We had a collie and a house cat… They had a monkey and two horses named Charlie Brown and Satan… I threw stones at stop sighs… Hugh threw stones at crocodiles.” (Paragraph 8, page 109) Sedaris thought throwing stones at crocodiles was really fun. He did not realize what kind of danger Hugh was really in. “No fifteen-foot python ever wandered onto my school’s basketball court… I begged, I prayed nightly, but it just never happened… A military coup in which forces sympathetic to colonel arrived late at night to assassinate my next-door neighbor.” (Paragraph 13, page 111) Sedaris wanted to everything Hugh had. He wanted to travel the around the Continent of Africa too. Sedaris loved Hugh’s