Member-only story
Self-Esteem: High school ruined it
I may seem like I complain about high school a lot…that should tell you how traumatic it can be.
The story of being bullied in high school is nothing new. Many people have said that their high school years were the worst of their life. Mine may not be the worst people have had, but it was debilitating to me.
I grew up in a small town with less than 1,500 people. It was a mostly white population and any diversity that was seen was sometimes looked at with judgment.
I can admit, I was a weird kid. I talked about things that other people weren’t interested in and talked A LOT. This may be due to undiagnosed autism (of which I am looking into a diagnosis), and if you ask any neurodivergent person about how high school was for them, you’ll get a similar answer to mine.
All the way from elementary to high school, I always felt like the odd duck. I had a few close friends but for the most part, people thought I was weird. When I first came to middle school the group of friends I had in elementary school had decided to take a vote and kicked me out of the group. My best friend to this day doesn’t recall it but it was told to me and it hurt my…
