A First Time for Everything

In the first 50 pages of the memoir, Dan recalls his family life during his teen years and begins to explore the origin of the fears that held him back from fully enjoying life during junior high. Dan writes about himself honestly and with humility, totally willing to share what he considered his flaws in early adolescence. He establishes relatability with his target audience of middle grade readers by sharing his most embarrassing moment: the day he had to give a speech in front of the whole school. During this scene, the background of the panels turns red, indicating a sense of alarm and danger. Tension rises as the perspective zeroes in on Dan’s wide-eyed and horrified expression. Emphasizing a splash page covered in “HA HA HA” to represent his audience’s reaction is linguistic hyperbole: “I’d like to report a murder. There were about 700 witnesses” (20). Although he jokes about how this made him aware of what leads people to lose bladder control during such experiences, further embarrassing themselves, this moment affected Dan’s ability to live fully. After the incident, Dan lived inside himself and hid from the world, fearing embarrassment and hurt. During his trip to Europe, however, he learned to avoid letting his past prevent him from enjoying the present, introducing the theme of Overcoming Fear to Live in the Moment. It took leaving his family, school, and country behind for this change to occur. Dan emphasizes that he grew up in a small town where nothing significant really happened because this life directly contrasted with his experiences in Europe. Dan’s mother, who had lupus, was ironically the one who pushed him to go on the trip, though the memoir doesn’t reveal this until much later.

The second key moment that Dan focuses on in the Prologue is the day that he and his friends went to a party to which they weren’t invited. It was Dan’s first house party, but the police broke up the party just as they arrived. As a result, Dan learned to fear first times and to stick to what he was familiar with, thematically introducing The Impact of First-Time Experiences. Dan also saw himself as unable to talk to girls during this time, but he soon learned that this perception was skewed by his other experiences; the more he considered his interactions with girls, the more he started to remember the times that he was helpful and kind toward them. Dan was still mentally young before his trip to Europe, always worried about getting in trouble and breaking rules. What symbolizes this most distinctly is the illustration of the boys standing on the other side of the fence on their way to the party. The drawing portrays them as small as ants, and the fence towers over them, suggesting that the demands of early adulthood and growing up can feel overwhelming. In addition, he depicts the atmosphere at his school as hostile and aggressive, but how much this was likewise a skewed perception based on his bias and how much it reflected reality is unclear. When Dan went to Europe and talked to people his own age outside the school setting, he realized that people weren’t as spiteful and mean as he had thought. Over time, he gained confidence, and when he witnessed himself acting responsibly and independently, he started to believe that he carried those traits.