Bringing up baby.

My dad is about 5'11 and when he was younger he was very lean. He was a good athlete in his prime. He tried out for Scotland's national rubgy team in the fifties and he was a scratch golfer in his prime. He doesn't watch anything other than sports to this day. My mother is not an athlete although she is strong mentally. I am 5'8 and stocky. All I ever cared about until I was in my mid thirties was sports. I had very few other hobbies. When I was young I was ok at hockey and that's about it. My hand eye is decent, my speed is average and the only reason I was okay at hockey was that I had a low centre of gravity and could get off the mark quickly. I had quickness and decent hand eye co-ordination.  I have never had any upper body strength.
When I was in Grade 11, my teacher (Mrs. Jackson) said that I had a talent for expression. I think that was the sum total of compliments I got as a kid at school. The only thing I can think of, is that Mrs. Jackson had me in her class for a couple of years and could see what I could do and cared enough to relate that to my parents. My parents are uneducated, close-minded and small. The compliment was ignored and to be fair, I ignored the compliment myself when it was given. It tells me though that one of the things  I actually had some talent in was completely unavailable to me. I'm going to assume that maybe I had some talent as an actor or public speaker. My parents didn't give a fuck and I didn't know any better. It was ignored.
The communists were probably right. They looked for talent in areas that kids could excel in and pushed them. That is the way to go. At least you have something...a talent or a gift that was nurtured.
I doubt I could ever have gone into drama. My dad never gave a shit if I came home with an F in music or art. To be fair, I sucked at art for sure and probably for music too. He also told me that if I ever told him I was gay, he would have disowned me. I can't imagine if I was 16 and living in Australia and told him I wanted to be an actor that he would have told me to go fuck myself. I never had a hope.