“What did you think about pedophiles when you were a child?”

I don’t remember if I knew what the word pedophile was in my early childhood. The earliest memory I have of knowing about pedophiles is in the 7th grade. There was this rumor that our gym teacher was a pedophile and would perv on us kids. I remember in my 8th grade Spanish class, we were talking about Michael Jackson when some girl in the class shouted out that he was a pedophile. I didn’t think much about it though. My best friend said it wasn’t true; that he loved children, he would never do such horrible things to them. My best friend at the time was a huge MJ fan so I took what she said into consideration. I remember one of the first times I noticed my attraction at the age of 13, I thought to myself that I was a pedophile – one of those people. It absolutely horrified me. I remember when I was 15/16 I came across a map community on Twitter. I thought they were a bunch of creepy perverts. I remember when my parents got me a job at a daycare when I was 16 it was the first time I noticed my attraction to children in real life. I felt that I was such a disgusting pervert for feeling that way about such young children.