The reasons we are weird will become clear to you

Some of you never wrote a little number above each word in a 500-word essay to make the point to the 5th grade teacher that assigning word count is a crime against writing. "So a page?" I had asked. "Five. Hundred. Words," Mr. Flaherty replied icily. I thought the idea was ludicrous but said nothing further. If he wanted 500 words exactly, I figured I'd save him some work by numbering each word. 

My fifth grade friend Ken talks about that day. "I will never forget the look of fury on Mr. Flaherty’s face," he writes.

The first thing I want everyone to know about Generation X is that we are weird. The reasons we are weird will become clear to you the longer you read Diary of a Low Budget Superhero.∎