shrugging off the bullies 28 years later

Wishing I'd booked more annual leave - will have to make sure I take lots at Christmas.

I was doing my usual radio flick the other day and stayed to listen to the whole of the Prokofiev piece playing. This is unusual - as soon as I hit Classic fm I go straight on. But I love Romeo and Juliet - even tho it's now hard to shift images from The Apprentice when I listen to it.
Until 1985, my favourite type of music was Classical music. Then one day I discovered someone had written on my school pencil case "I love Mozart" and it hurt. No-one likes getting picked on, and sadly I wasn't at the time strong enough to be proud of all my uncool tastes - I was already perceived as uncool as I was smart and loved learning.
Last week I explored in my head that one of the reasons I never linger at Classic fm is the fear that if I crashed listening to it, any passers by or ambulance folk would judge me for being uncool.
I am trying to be less concerned about how others judge me. And I'd like to think ambulance drivers follow some kind of code of conduct that they treat people well, irrespective of their musical preferences. So the question is, am I more confident now than I was at 12? I guess as I listened to the entire piece last week rather than dash on to the next channel, then maybe I am. Perhaps now is the time to look again at what it was I enjoyed about Classical music and see if the passion's still there - it might not be. But I know sometimes I couldn't get to sleep, I'd been so inspired by what I'd heard. We'll see :)