Schools

I was unable to post day 3 yesterday as my home computer crashed & I had to get a new one & get it all set up. Took some time to get done.

Schools were not my favorite things growing up. I loved reading & learning but actually being in school was always very emotionally difficult for me. We moved a lot since my father was a minister & those moves usually happened in the middle of a school year, never in summer break. That meant always entering a class that already had it's hierarchy in place & everyone already knew each other & had their BFF's chosen. There was very rarely anyone left over for me & I very rarely was accepted into the already in place groups. So I spent many of my school years on the outside looking in. I never knew where I fit in or with whom. For a child who liked being social it was very painful.

The worst year was 5th grade. We moved from Burlington NC, where I had had a wonderful school experience to Montgomery AL. My parents wanted to place me in Trinity Presbyterian school but there weren't any open spots at the time we moved, so I went to a public school first. I actually enjoyed that brief time, as my teacher was very compassionate & made sure that I was made to feel welcome. I made some friends fairly quickly. But then a spot opened up at Trinity, so I changed schools. This was the beginning of the worst school years of my life.

The girl whose spot I took had been very popular. My first  day in class I was told that I could never take her place & that I shouldn't even bother trying. No one talked to me, other than to make some kind of joke about me - my hair was too red, I had too many freckles, I was tall & had big feet. Oh, and let's not forget the buck teeth. You can imagine what was said.Well, the makeup of this class didn't change too much all the way through 8th grade. I spent 3 years being the brunt of every class joke; being tormented, teased, & bullied. And of course, all this emotional stress made me gain weight, so then we could add fat to all the other choices for jokes & bulling. I tried to tell my parents about the problems but they were so busy trying to get the new denomination started that they didn't pay any attention. Finally, in 8th grade, I came home from a basketball game with about 5 wads of chewing gum stuck in my hair. The kids had all sat behind me & thrown them at me during the game, which my parents insisted I go to because they had friends from out of town visiting & they wanted to talk. When I got home, and my mom started cutting my hair to get the gum out, I told them that if they didn't take me out of that school, I would leave home & they would never find me. Of course, I said this in front of their friends. I was bullied but not dumb. I knew that would get them to do something. The next year, I went to 9th grade at Georgia Washington Junior High, a public school. I learned so much that year, not all in the classroom. I got to ride the school bus, wear normal clothes, make friends with kids that had no idea my dad was an important minister - just be normal! I lost all my weight, got braces, learned how to relate to kids as a kid, & totally have fun.

Well, at the beginning of 10th grade, I knew we were going to be moving to Greenville, SC, but not until November. I chose to go back to Trinity for those couple of months. I stood up to those bullies & showed them that I was not defeated by them. When we moved to Greenville & I started school there, it wasn't as bad. I knew how to be strong & not let them bully me. But the  youth group at the church was a repeat of the Trinity hell and my slightly stronger personality had no chance! But we will save that story for later!