I have to be honest. Neither the main character of “Rats!” nor I were ever very brave. I recall being scared to death through most of my freshman year, and those feelings of “Oh my god, any second now I’m going to totally screw things up!” did not really diminish until some years after I graduated from college. Nowadays, of course, very little scares me. I survived so many terrifying things in college and the Reserves that nothing I come across really phazes me anymore. But back when I was a freshman cadet? If you said “Boo!” to me, I’d probably squeak and run away.
So Irwin Rat is really a reflection of me, complete with all my neuroses, except he’s male and has a lot less hair than I did. Like Irwin, I did run into some interesting people at Virginia Tech, outside the VTCC. Back then, it was a little uncommon to meet folks who sported purple mohawks and multiple body piercings. These days that seems so de rigueur. But back in the late 1980s, it was pretty freaky, especially for a small town girl like myself. I did eventually loosen up, however, and I made friends with all sorts of people, and these days I contemplate getting a purple mohawk of my own. Because now that I’m older, I’m more into scaring the crap out of other people than being scared by them 😉
