Interesting Journey

A new twist on loving your enemies.

In elementary school, I was scorned from grades five through eight. I remember waking up with dread and loathing in my heart for school because of how my peers treated me. I became a quiet person, smiling little and talking less. I felt miserable about myself and everyone else. I refused to accept that people could be good and decent for what they'd done to me. The most popular girl in my grade hated me and turned everyone, including those who were my friends, away from me. I remember sitting alone, and when I tried to approach them watching them purposefully turn aside and walk in a different direction, leaving me with an even emptier and deeper hole than I'd started with. The most of this torture was reserved for grade five and a portion of grade six, after which my friends allowed me back into their circle... but only to backstab me mercilessly for the next two years. I was unhappy.

I anticipated high school with such fervor. I believed it would be a reconciling place where I could be exposed to new people and find the person inside that I've stowed away for so many years. Promptly upon entering grade nine, I confidently approached new people and immediately made new friends. I knew that I wasn't a bad person; I had simply pulled into myself for several years until elementary school wasted away and high school broadened on the horizon. In a way, it saved me. It helped Arwen develop into the person she is today. They weren't my glory days in the sense the media has portrayed, but they were some of the greatest days of my life because they helped me get to know myself through other people; through the friends I've made and lost I've understood so much more about myself.

If I hadn't been put in that situation, grades 5-8, I wouldn't be the person I am today. Instead of going on Jenny Jones and shouting into that 'popular' girl's face, I'd like to shake her hand and smile warmly into her face, thanking her for all that she's done for me.