Have you ever experienced that moment where life slaps you right in the face and the little bubble you live in...bursts?
Before we dive into this moment, it is necessary that we learn some background about my family. My parents grew up in opposite family conditions where my mom lived in the outskirts of Youngstown, Ohio. The economy, during that time, was in shambles and continued to deteriorate. Youngstown was even mentioned in a speech from Obama. Anyway, her life was worsening resulting in her family living out of a cheap little trailer home that no one would expect to inhabit. But as her conditions were decreasing, her drive for finding a better life was increasing leading her to receive financial aid at Yale University. As for my dad, his childhood took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where his father was a banker and knew all the tricks of finance. Both of my parents met in Medical School where they would eventually go into the field of medicine.
My parents taught me to find the positive side in every person I come across. My mother wanted my siblings to have a self awareness of the less fortunate resulting in our whole family doing a lot of community service.
Throughout my childhood, my parents were fortunate enough to put me in an environment where the world surrounded around me. I never saw the other side of the world filled with violence, poverty, and disease creating a life of kindness. But on the first week of middle school, my mind opened up to this new reality.
Sixth grade, I moaned hearing my alarm explode into my eardrum.
The wool of my bed begged me not to leave, but my organized mother did not want my day to start scrambling for the bus.  After I layed in my bed and counted to 20 seconds, my groggy body finally stood up feeling the nice comfort of the carpet and unwillingly underwent my morning routine.
The first week of school could not have been more boring than watching paint dry. But on the bright side, my new teachers were making the workload easier to give us the opportunity to get settled into the new school year.
Wednesday, I experienced a day of school so easy that even a 3rd grader could have done the work that presented upon us . My brain vividly remembers coloring multiple artistic drawings and filling many boring repetitive sheets about myself. My focus instantly dozed off looking through a clear window of the beautiful autumn colors. I witnessed the falling leaves that were crimson red, as yellow as the sunlight, and were more orange than a fresh picked pumpkin.
           When the loud annoying bell rung with all its might signaling the end of the day, the whole school shot up from their polished desks and slowly walked(as our teachers would have liked it, but most of them jogged anyway) to their lockers. I gathered all of my precious valuables and marched to the exit. The locations of the school were still unfamiliar to me so my instincts told me to follow the other experienced students. My tiny little legs trudged down the hall as all the older kids towered over me(remember, this was time where I did not possess the muscular body as the 8th graders ). Through the corner of my eyes, I saw a familiar face in the crowd.
This name was on the tip of my tongue.
This name was a seventh grader I knew by the name of Jay.
Jay and I shared some time together since I tagged along with his group of friends during my brothers basketball games.
Jay and I didn't really talk much during this time since he was flirting with the ladies as cool kids would do, but I decided to say “Hi: hoping he would remember my face at least.
I quickly caught up beside him, dodging the other behemoths and bravely said, “What's up, Jay?”
He scoped the narrow halls to see who spoke this sacred word and looked down at me, a miniscule 6th grader staring at him. Jay had this look of confusion, the way one would tilt their neck back and sharpen their eyes as if one said the most ridiculous thing in mankind.  At this point, the realization hit me that he did not remember me.
Then he smirked and sarcastically replied, “Sup… nerd.”
His response bounced all over my brain repeating “Sup...nerd”  “Sup...nerd” “Sup...nerd” in his cruel deep voice.
As his last word was spoken, he simply turned and walked away.
It felt so coordinated that it was like a Hollywood movie about the stereotypes of high school.
My thoughts were being controlled by his voice because I was in shock. Never in my life has anyone ever said anything of that nature to me. But I kept walking to not hold up the crowd that was eager to escape this prison.
My mom’s car awaited me right as I moped outside. I entered in the car showing the defeat that I just felt.
She noticed that I was not my normal self and asked,”Why the long face?” trying to ignite any humor that remained in my day.
I sighed telling her to just keep driving. I didn't need another life lecture today
Not today.
Throughout the past 3 years, I’ve been called worse, but this was the first experience on the other side of the coin. It taught me how cruel this world can be sometimes. The world hold many damaging individuals and sadly, we are going to have deal with them for the rest of our life. Luckily, I have supportive friends and family that will help me if I have difficulties with these type of people. Because of my experiences, I feel strongly that his this a great blueprint