Photo Credit: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / monkeybusiness
Nick had only finished his sandwich a few minutes prior, and it was already beginning. The bullies were swarming over him. He reached to grab his apple, but was too late. Someone had reached over his left shoulder and snatched it. He turned to face his rivals and wondered why it took 12 of them to harass one 95-pound, 5-foot-nothing high-school freshman.
Natalie stopped in the convenience store on the way home from school. Yeah, she had a good breakfast, and her mother had packed a hearty lunch, but she was still hungry. She bought a bag of chips and a cupcake. As she walked towards home munching away, she heard some girls across the street giggling in her direction. She knew they were making fun of her weight. She had to admit she had gotten too big over the summer. Bobby’s asthma was really acting up, so he pulled his inhaler from his book bag and sucked in deeply. He kicked the dirt in front of him. Why couldn’t he just be regular like everyone else? Then he shook his head. The doctor had told him to walk in the morning and evening to condition his lungs to be open and more functional. But Bobby had been too lazy to respond to that advice. When he showed his gym teacher the notes from his mom to get him out of class, he saw the guys were rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. They shouldn’t tease him. He can’t help it. Or could he?
My youngest son spent the first decade of his life among people who enabled his excuses, and others who pushed him around. Then he grew tired of his overweight, asthmatic way of life and changed everything through self-discipline. To this day, he credits the bullies, not the people who empathized and compensated or explained their actions.