Photo: Vik Nanda, Flickr Creative Commons
It's kind of like the big blob of text I just erased and replaced with this. Facebook recommended today that I friend a girl with whom I went to school, a girl whose life I helped make miserable in fourth grade. I wasn't the leader of the torture or even all that aggressive with it. I don't think I've ever been the type to be all that overt with my more animalistic behavior, but being an active participant in the shunning and the behind-the-back name calling stuck with me enough to be one of those lead weights that I carry around in my stomach. On days like today, some of those weights shift and bring with them the guilt that I think I even felt, at least a little, then.
She had hair strangely the same color as her skin and it was obvious that her family was nowhere near as well off as those of the rest of her classmates. Back then the classes were ranked by test scores and I was in one of the top groups. We wouldn't be exposed to those not like us until middle school. She was out of place, but now I have no idea why we were so obsessed with the idea that she was ugly. I don't think she really was.
5 comments:
Kids are mean. Fact of life. Still makes me sad, too.
FB suggested I friend the last person to lay me off if that makes you feel better.
A girl who made my life miserable in high school sent me a FB friend request once. I happily ignored it.
I have also lost my blogging mojo, as evidenced by my lack of posts in the last 2 weeks. Something interesting needs to happen so I can get the spark back.
Yeah, we've all been dicks before, especially when we were younger. And we've all been on the receiving end as well. Or I sure hope we have.
I had the reputation of being a bully bully. I loathed bullies. And I bullied the shit out of them. Sure, it made me unpopular.
But you've never met my mom. Looking back, I did it more for her than anyone else.
Rassles, by the end of middle school I hated those kids, more when someone else was the victim.
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