Even though I grew up in the 1980s, I still enjoyed a rather Tom Sawyer kind of lifestyle which most kids can't enjoy anymore. Fighting at school was routine. N

Even though I grew up in the 1980s, I still enjoyed a rather Tom Sawyer kind of lifestyle which most kids can't enjoy anymore. Fighting at school was routine. Never got seriously hurt because the fights were outlets, and we had no desire to truly harm each other. I learned how to shoot and hunt from my uncle who's the only member of my family to have served in the military. I spent my teens doing martial arts and fighting full-contact with guys twice my age. I was also a pretty impressionable kid, but I think this kind of martial training was educational. I have not become a Marine or anything. Instead, I became a grad student with a burning passion for differential geometry and mathematical physics ;-) It may happen that, in some cases, providing an outlet is the same as encouraging. In my case, it was a wonderful way of spending my youth.