Reply #9: It was grade school for me

[YankeyMCC]

By middle school (junior high in my hometown) I'd started working out and fighting back, this turned out ok but when I first started fighting back I was at a dangerous point reacting to unreasonable treatment in unreasonable ways.

It started because I was the new kid coming in the middle of the school year and wasn't very socially adept at making new friends. In my old neighborhood I just had them, I had no concept of how to 'make friends'.

And I think the hurt that cut the deepest, the hurt that left the most pronounced scar in my mind and feelings, was the fact that no teachers or administrators seemed to care. At least they didn't notice and when they did it was usually after I reacted and I got punished along with the others. I would hear, "I don't care who started it." very often.