Stupid idiot, what's wrong with you? Everybody has heard these
words echoing through the halls, but have you been on the other side?
I have.
One question that was asked of me after school one day has
lingered in my mind since the day it slipped out of the lips of a young
boy.
As a joke two kids asked if I had a disease or something. This shouldn't
have been a problem, but the truth was I did.
I contracted a debilitating disease and the medication caused
me to gain an excessive amount of weight. When I was put on these steroids
the doctors told me about each of the side effects but they never
told me I'd lose every friend I ever had.
Not many people remember me in the sixth grade. I was the girl
who sat in the back of the room. Nobody realized I was there, not even
the
teachers. I would walk in and sit down never talking to anybody. I
didn't
have any real friends.
It was the lowest point of my life! I'm glad nobody remembers
who I was. The months I spent in the hospital helped people forget.
The
hospital was great. Nobody there criticized me for how I looked. I
wasn't
laughed at when I couldn't do something normal kids could do. The hospital
had become my escape.
Going back to school seemed like torture. Kids in the junior
high were so cruel. There wasn't a day when someone didn't ask
if I had
eaten an elephant or if I were the new version of the Goodyear blimp.
Kids avoided eye contact and would move to opposite ends of the
hall. Behind my back they called me cabbage patch girl. They never
thought I knew. They didn't care if I stayed up all night crying. They
never knew how bad it hurt. There were times when I would just sit
and
ponder my existence and question what it would be like for everybody
with
out me here.
So many things could have been done to prevent these feelings
of despair. A simple "hi" without a smirk, a true smile; not a half-hearted
attempt.
You see, this isn't just another story to me, it is me. Now I
can look back on this and say it was all for the better; but at the
time
I was a child who felt lonely and forgotten.
One thing I learned is that each person, no matter what others
may think, has feelings. A simple, yet most appreciated thing doesn't
have
to be big, it can take as little as a second but may change the day
for a
lot of people.
All it takes is a note saying, "you're awesome" or "I
appreciate you." Try handing a note like that to anybody. Not only
do they feel
happier but you will be too.
There are too many youth who don't know what they're worth.
They feel lost and forgotten just like I did.
You could look through your yearbook and find those people,
most of you could probably think of one now. These people are in your
life
today, but the average person chooses to do nothing about it.
But what type of person are you? Are you the one who goes out
of your way to avoid someone, or do you make it a point to say hi?
What you
do in a moment's time, can have a tremendous effect on a person for
the
rest of their life. And as someone once said,"We are here to make
people feel like a million bucks, not two cents."
