Grade School Sucks For Everyone! Yay!!

Did you ever have that moment when someone asks you a question that seems so benign or of little consequence or even quite forgetful and then...BAM!, it brings a memory flooding back? I did, and it's one that helped shape who I am now.

I was at my dog's vet (yes, even Laser Puppy has to "get the thermometer" periodically) and one of the technicians and I were just chatting and she said something about wanting to let her hair grow longer but it didn't curl nicely anymore.  Long story short, I told her about the thermal straightening thing that I do and how  it's permanent and AWESOME!!!  In fact, side note...I'm pretty sure that God threw me a quick shout-out when he gave humans the ability to do that.  I am quite appreciative. That conversation was no big deal but it did get me thinking about how I used to absolutely HATE my hair.  Okay, so this is not about God giving me curly hair!  When I think back to how it made me feel to have this hair that would grow about ten times it's original size depending on the percentage of humidity that was in the air is just one more thing on top of many that got me picked on, left out, hurt and laughed at and ultimately remembered for being the quiet person in class.  Ha!! That has soooo changed!  This is not anywhere near a sob story so let me just get that out there right now.  What it is, is a testament to how what I went through  over twenty years ago changed my life and made me who I am today.  So when your child complains about how they look now or if they have some type of circumstance that upsets them...and you don't have an old scoliosis brace lying around to thrust in their face while saying "unfair? unfair?  How about THIS for unfair, huh?" think about telling them that it's just the way it is and after school is over none of that will matter except for who they become.  My point is, everyone is awkward at some point in their lives or have had to forge through some kind of hardship in their past but usually it's not all for nothing and if you don't think you benefited then you're probably just too cynical to notice how it changed you or you didn't learn from your life experience. Well here's how my childhood shaped who I am now...


Middle school was pretty hard for me and it lasted well into my high school years.   I was diagnosed with scoliosis in the 6th Grade which is also the year that we moved to a new town. The scoliosis was not just a slight curve either;  I ended up needing a back-brace and if you haven't seen one lately it's because they make them soooooo much better (no plastic now) than in the 80's.  Basically the "old-timey" ones make it look like you wrapped 2x4's around yourself from armpit to rump.  Correction, only to half of your rump so that way you're flat as a board back there except for a bubble at the at the very bottom...of your bottom.  Awesome, I know.  Anyway, to make myself even more attractive, I was fitted with a a shoe lift for the one-and-some-odd-inch difference in my leg length.  Go me!  So picture this rainy day in your head of what I looked like - here I come running up to the school with a book over my head (sadly a book does not, by any means, block humidity) moving robot-style and now more awkward for the first year because I'm not used to being the same height on both sides.  I get inside and keep my fingers crossed that my hair didn't soak up all the humidity outside.  I check the mirror and of course my bangs (cursed things) have now curled up to a point where it looks like I decided to wear a fuzzy headband that day and never had bangs to begin with.  And, oh snap! I forgot to mention the teeth braces...you would have had an incomplete picture of me!!  You know those pencils that kids love with the fuzzy dude on top that you twirl to get the "hair" to fray out?  That whole thing was me; stick straight body, floofed (floof is a word in Curly Hair World) out hair, and some metal in there...plus my butt bubble (lest we forget).  I'm not going to go into the jokes and teasing that went on about me, but I did become numb to them and I did exact my revenge a few times..."ooooops, I'm so sorry!  I had no idea your hands were there when I leaned back!" <giggle> Oh, and the brace really came in handy during my later years of high school when we lived in Virginia and I played on the Junior team of the annual powder puff football game. What?  If you had just tagged me like you're supposed to do then you wouldn't be getting your fingers taped together after the game!

I learned to laugh about all that stuff and appreciate that I can't grow hair on my left armpit (bonus!).  I'm hoping to get a discount from Sona Medspa for that laser hair removal procedure!  Anyway, thanks to my parents, sister and close friends, those years taught me to have compassion for others (except stupid people...you just can't help that type), to find humor in almost any situation, and to forgive those that have to belittle someone else so that they may feel better.  I may not do everything right in my parenting but one thing I did do right is teach my daughter these things and now I wish I could have handled myself half as good as she does when I was her age.  Oh yeah, and I never let her have bangs (rule of thumb: curly hair = no bangs)!

Middle school and high school are the hardest years of your life that won't matter.  Most of the kids that think they are at the top of the proverbial food-chain won't be on top later and those that just barely make it through with any of their self-esteem in tact will probably be more compassionate and well-liked people because of them. So thanks! And to those parents that don't see how their kids are treating others...you are the same ones raising the American Idol Generation...so PAY ATTENTION!