Magenta

Remember the blog project I did last year with three other women? Well, Froggie decided to resurrect it with me and we each got to invite another friend to join us. She invited a mutual friend (someone I met through her) and I invited a friend whose blog I really enjoy reading. So now it's Froggie, Mom of Many, Moma Rock and Merrylandgirl. Hope you enjoy the topics that we'll be exploring!

This week, I picked the topic: What part of your personality is now extinct?

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

I based this week's topic off of an episode of "How I Met Your Mother," where they go to a museum for a party. At one point, Lily is talking to an exhibit that features the college version of Marshall, complete with his college personality. It was showing that this personality was now extinct, since he was married and working in the corporate world. It got me thinking about aspects of our personalities that are now extinct. There was another episode where they talked about a concept called "revertigo," where people turn into a different version of themselves to adapt to the friends that bring out that personality.

The hand is not "Thing." It belongs to a friend.

Before I started my freshman year of college, I became involved with a local Rocky Horror cast (a group that performs “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in front of the screen). It was a way for me to let out my personality without fear of being judged or made fun of. I felt real acceptance there. Along those lines, “Rocky Horror” became an obsession of mine. I would play the music in my car all the time and sing along with it, as well as shout out the comebacks. Luckily my non-“Rocky Horror” friends tolerated it, even though they thought I was crazy. I also got a nickname...Magenta. After someone told me I looked like Magenta (the maid) with my wild curly hair, I knew it was a persona I had to take on. I joined the cast and got to play Magenta every so often. I even perfected the look and kept updating my costume to be even *more* similar. I even got my hair dyed red. Being Magenta gave me more confidence and I took that with me when I went to college. My Magenta personality went along with my college personality in some ways. I was less inhibited and flirted a lot more than I ever did at my high school speech tournaments. I was also more obnoxious and would laugh about the most random things. My nickname from "Rocky Horror" carried over and my friends would call me Magenta instead of Melissa. They even got their family members and friends to call me Magenta too. I took on the name for chat rooms and called my first website “Magenta’s Vunderful Vorld.” (She said her W’s as V’s.)

If I were to go to a museum of past personalities, I would definitely find a display for “Magenta.” It would be a combination of my “Rocky Horror” personality and my college personality. I’d be wearing a t-shirt and jeans, along with a flannel shirt and a pair of Chuckies (Chuck Taylor high tops) or imitation Birkenstocks , depending on the season. My hair would be long and my wild curls would be flowing. I’d probably have a hemp necklace on too. All my “Rocky Horror” videos (I only had a VCR back then), CDs, pictures, posters, etc. would be in a replica of my college dorm room. (I’d choose the single room in Watterson that I inhabited for two years.)

I definitely am different than I was in those days. While I do miss college and look back on it with fond memories, as soon as I graduated, I felt like I could never fit into that world again. I had gone back for visits and I just felt so out of place. The longer I had been away from school, the stranger it felt to come back for visits, regardless of some of my friends still being there and trying to keep things the way they were during our college days. I tried going to some “Rocky Horror” shows in my mid-20’s, but even that felt wrong to me. I would be so tired at a show that I would fall asleep halfway through. Even when I was asked to reprise my role of Magenta, it just felt foreign to me. The people at the show were so different and I only knew a few people who had stuck around over time. I just felt like all the new people there were posers. (I wonder if people felt that way about me when I first was going to shows a lot.) I eventually stopped going altogether. While I still like some things about “Rocky Horror,” most of it is just a bunch of fond memories, as well.

Now that I’ve been out of college for about 13 years and away from the “Rocky Horror” scene for about 10, I am a completely different person. I’m sure I shocked a few people from my past when I told them how I’m Modern Orthodox Jewish and married with three kids. That definitely was a far stretch from who I was back in those days. I don't really experience "revertigo" either. I had in the past, but I definitely am more true to my current personality while talking to friends who knew me during my college and "Rocky Horror" days. Sure, I'll bring up certain inside jokes with them, but I'm definitely more reserved in person than I used to be. I still continue to love some things I loved during my college days though... “Friends,” “Rent” and 90’s music. I also love “Animaniacs” and am glad I can share my love for them with my kids. However, “South Park” and V.C. Andrews novels can go into my museum display.