Why my first email address was brookestia@hotmail.com

Did you create an alter-ego goddess persona when you were 13? So did I.

A brief period of infatuation with Greek mythology and a desperate need to boost my self esteem got together and out of Zeus' head snuck Brookestia, Goddess of Fun.

In case you're not following, here is an excerpt from the beginning of an 8th-grade English paper:

"Brookestia is the coolest goddess on Mount Olympus but she doesn't brag, that's how cool she is." (Brookestia obviously had next to nothing in common with Brooke, who had to worry about people tying her shoelaces together during Wildlife Sciences and who didn't know how to open a pop can without getting blood in her Sprite.)

Legend had it that Brookestia unseated Norman, God of Boring (not the most popular god) and also totally swagged out his throne after she took it over. Her first miracle was the water slide.

In her notes my English teacher reccommentded I join the extra-curricular writing club or see the school counselor. I did both, because they sounded exciting. And exciting is fun, and fun is something Brookestia knows a lot about.