Something that I think that most of us can relate to is not fitting in. There is something different about all of us that separates us from the norm but that is part of what makes us so special. In elementary school I had a lot of trouble fitting in with other students, in fact I stood out like a sore thumb, and it made it hard to make friends. I can remember during recess while the other kids would play football or basketball together I would sit on the curb reading books. There is one student that I remember being far worse than all the others, I wont use his name but suffice it to say that he seemed to make it his mission to make every day for me a living hell. Whether he was throwing rocks at me or just name calling he always found a way to torment me. One day he crossed a line and although it seemed terrible, and important at the time, today I can't even remember what it was. I told my mother about it and she went to speak with the principle of the school. My mother demanded to speak with the other child's parents but the principle got a look in her eyes and refused, I didn't find out why till many years later. The other child was very unstable and obviously I wasn't his only victim, his parents had been brought in before to speak with the principle about other children he had bullied but he would invariably return to school the next day with bruises and sores from where his father had beaten him. Despite tormenting other kids daily this bully had horrors of his own and that was likely what made him act out in school the way that he did. Many times when I complained about the conditions I was forced to endure at school my parents would tell me to think instead about how fortunate I was, how children starved in Africa or how homeless people lived on the street but this was the first time I personally knew the person whom I was more fortunate than. They were more than just an arbitrary idea but a real person who I knew and interacted with. For the first time I took that advice to heart. My parents are far from saints but I take solace in the fact that they could be much worse. I have a roof over my head and food to eat and even though my life isn't perfect I have learned to be content with what I'm given and not lament what I don't have. This is a lesson that has helped me through some hard times and wherever or whoever you are I hope that you can learn to be happy.
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I'd like to say that I eventually became friends with the bully and that the story ad a happy ending but I changed schools after 5th grade and only saw him once more on my first day of high school, during that one day I learned that he had not changed a bit in all the years since I had seen him and he dropped out just a few days later. I don't know what happened to him after that and I'm glad to say that I never saw him again.

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