History

Raising the “Emotionally Sensitive” Child

Micah was born on September 16, 1999, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His parents, Phyllis and Isaac, were psychologists who met while working in private practice. By the time of Micah’s birth, Isaac was well known as a behavioral analyst with impressive credentials. Phyllis was much younger than her husband, and still completing her higher education.

Micah’s childhood was unconventional at the very best. His parents were able to raise him in comfort, but the demands of his father’s profession meant Isaac was often away from home, traveling the lecture circuit or doing bids at university programs for semesters at a time. Phyllis completed her PsyD while raising Micah, but the pressures of her education meant she tried out unusual and unconventional ways of childrearing.

While not necessarily a ‘free-range’ parent, Phyllis didn’t dictate what Micah should enjoy, believing it was important for children to make up their own minds about their tastes early. This meant that Micah developed a hankering for glossy teen soap operas, to the point that he watched VHS tapings of Beverly Hills 90210 when other toddlers were watching Dora the Explorer.

In later years, Micah would cite the first awareness of his sexuality as a childhood flash of feeling for the eponymous Beast from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which was also part of his childhood media rotation. This was long before he had any words for homosexuality, or sexuality in general, never mind the ability to internalize guilt or shame for being gay. He did, however, receive an unconventional introduction to the rudiments of feelings and attraction from Phyllis, who gave him a version of “the talk” when he was in kindergarten. This did little to clarify anything Micah had felt, and he certainly didn’t develop any clear understanding about his latent attractions.

There’s Something About That Boy

Micah only had about a year in Baton Rouge public schools before the Hendricks family relocated. Phyllis had finally obtained her certification to practice cognitive behavioral therapy and had purchased a practice in the upwardly mobile suburb of Lakewood, which Phyllis and Isaac believed was a far better place to raise a family.

Phyllis’s practice proved lucrative and, supplemented by Isaac’s already burgeoning career, the Hendricks’s were able to afford a very comfortable existence, moving into one of the grand houses on the shore of Wren Lake.

In school, Micah proved to be thoroughly average. He wasn’t particularly intelligent or popular, and had difficulty standing out. Phyllis encouraged him to try out different things after school, in an effort to make friends and to find out what he was ‘good’ at. This led to an unfortunate stint in Little League when Micah was 9. He understood the rudiments of the game well enough, but he had a propensity to daydream in the outfield, which did nothing to endear him to his teammates.

The years passed, and by the time Micah was in middle school, he began to have words for things about himself that he’d felt for a long time. When he was in sixth grade, Micah developed his first crush, on his classmate Will Belmont. One afternoon, after a gym class, Micah made the mistake of looking at Will for too long in the locker room. He was caught doing by an eighth grader, Dom Greco, who quickly made a scene about it. Will intervened, however, on Micah’s behalf, and got Dom to back off. The incident made an impression on Micah, who never forgot Will’s act of kindness. At the same time, Micah began to thoroughly understand what he was, even as he wasn’t sure if he could accept it.