Is it OCD, or is it

the Benign Emotional Neglect that Comes with a Goonies era childhood

My index fingers curve at the knuckle. When I place my hands flat, side by side while tucking my thumbs under, my fingers only touch halfway. They grew this way because for a year when I was 8, I crossed my fingers 24/7 for “good luck”. For years I told this story as a funny anecdote about my initial symptoms of OCD, along with the prayer rituals and superstitions-gone-haywire. But now that I’ve watched my friend’s children grow up, several of whom are now adults, I think about my weird fingers differently. Not just as a symptom of mental illness, but of something else so common in 1980s childhoods.

Apologies that it is can’t afford a manicure summer!