Locker-room lessons on gender

I was around 11 when my hockey coach suggested I might be more comfortable getting dressed for games in a separate change room, as I was the only girl on a team of all boys. I liked the idea, so I decided to migrate to a smaller, private room down the hall. Though I would miss talking to my teammates in the locker room post game, I wouldn't miss smelling them. I also wouldn't miss having to duck into the bathroom stall to change my bra, or look the other way when the guys changed out of their long underwear. On account of something called puberty, things had begun to get awkward in the dressing room. This type of separation, then, was fine by me and, I'm sure, fine by my male teammates.