The year it stopped

You know, there’s one more item related to Friday’s Pockets Full of Soup post that I decided yesterday I wanted to share. It’s an interesting addition to one part of the story. You might remember that I mentioned how I was verbally bullied by my classmates from 1st Grade through 8th Grade, and you might have been wondering what happened after that, when I got to 9th Grade. I can’t really explain the why, but let me tell you the what.

First, a little more about 8th Grade. That school year was a particularly tough time for me. In addition to all the issues associated with a young man undergoing puberty, I was not doing well in two of my classes, which for a kid who normally excelled academically and had the legacy of two high-achieving older siblings to live up to, was particularly crushing. The mockery by those around me was also at its peak. 8th Grade could not end fast enough, and I was relieved when it did.

Summer came and went, and upon showing up to high school in 9th Grade, I assume the social derision would resume, but it didn’t. No one was making fun of me, and if anything my social standing took a massive leap forward. For the first two weeks of 9th Grade I kept telling myself that it was all a lie, that everyone was lulling me into a false sense of security and the rug would be pulled out from me any minute, but days and weeks passed and nothing happened. I don’t know why, but the taunting stopped. It was as if everyone had all grown up a little that summer and subconsciously agreed to leave me alone. On occasion I would get a mean-spirited comment or two—as much as anyone else got in high school—but the widespread mockery never came back. Everyone just moved on.