Say hello world. This is me, not even twelve years old yet. First day of middle school. This is a picture I won’t even post on Facebook because I don’t want people I went to high school with to realize that I was kid they used to pick on in middle school, though I do think some of them realized it and tried to reverse their shitty behavior. Hell, I don’t even like looking at this picture. This was the first day of 3 long years of hell for me. I won’t talk about middle school, that’s how bad it was. Those years were scarring. But-
There is always a damn but isn’t there?
But I guess those years taught me some things. I learned that people are assholes and I needed to rely on myself to get things done. On the other side of the coin, I learned that letting some people in was a good thing and I needed close friends. I learned to put my fists up and fight because no one was going to fight for me, while knowing when to simply walk away from things that didn’t deserve my effort.
Bullying was a huge part of my childhood and adolescence. I will never try to sugarcoat that part of me. I’ve had rock thrown at me, kids tell me to kill myself, teachers tell me it was just a phase and friends say I was just easy to make fun of. I was the quiet kid, the weird kid, the fat kid. Four eyes, Bookworm. Tubby. I had all the names. I wasn’t popular, I didn’t talk to people and making friends was hard. Why do think the kids went after me?
I’m not looking for sympathy or pity. I’d never ask for nor do I ever want it. I went through what I went through years ago. That’s part of my past. I simply wanted to get it off my chest and out of my head. My friends know more, this is just the proverbial top of iceberg. I just wanted to say I didn’t l didn’t let it get me. I didn’t let it win. I survived, just because they didn’t want me to.
Hello, world. This is me now. 25 years old. I smile, most of the time, despite remembering what I went through. I laugh, even when I can hear their taunting laughs. I wake up because once I wished I never would again. Every day I remember, and that way, I make sure it never happens again.