Public Display of Affection

We weren’t allowed to touch each other at the private school I attended, from kindergarten to eleventh grade. Kids were punished for PDA: public display of affection. We were supposed to maintain a distance of at least six inches from each other.

There were no dances at my school. Every year, representatives (one boy, one girl) from each class would participate in a Homecoming ritual. The boy would wear a suit. The girl would wear a dress. The two kids would walk together, arm in arm, and stand in front of the entire school while someone with a microphone announced the kids’ names…