Childhood Memories

of a border hopper, to put it blatantly. Learned this in 6th grade, after moving to a quieter, less lethal neighborhood. I remember kindergarten and first grade fondly, even though I spent a few times in the dreaded principal's office (crying, I'll admit) for scuffles with other little pricks like me.About third grade is when I moved out of my old neighborhood, in which a neighbor was found shot and dead in the rec center not far from my house a few weeks prior to the move. This was also the year I became friends with 'The Retard'. It was a new school (they transferred us due to overpopulation)with mostly the same faces, so everyone was aware of the unquestionable law that you must pick on this kid. He had an extremely severe case of ADHD, so no one ever called him anything but the title mentioned above. Thus, I didn't have many friends, and was for some reason on a pacifistic phase from third to sixth grade--that means I got beat down a few more times than I'd like to admit, just for being friends with this guy.Due to this somewhat lonely childhood, I get fumed when I hear people blaming Columbine and VT on inanimate objects rather than the people that put them down. But on the same wavelength, neither I, nor any of my few friends resorted to that, so I certainly place blame on those kids for taking it too far.In junior high I said to hell with pacifism and beat a few kids up. I befriended more people, but due to it being junior high, more friends meant more enemies. It was a stressful, melodramatic period of my life, but a great metamorphisis took place in me as I learned how to socialize with my new friends better, and I learned why prejudice is.
I had a few problems with some black kids in my old neighborhood, but there was constantly trouble with them in junior high (low income demographic; in hindsight those nonaquaintances who knew I was half mexican either disliked me as a spic or a half gringo... kids are jerks).From this experience, I was reminded by a select few people that racism as a whole is incorrect; people of any race can be good or bad. However, I also learned that someone who lets words like nigger, honkey, or beaner fly probably have some experience with people who personify such terms, and as such are not always ignorant assholes. In contrast, I find that anyone who claims to have no racism in their heart to be the most sheltered and naive people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.In highschool, I commuted to the other side of town (don't ask me how I was in both these districts... weird.) to the Rich highschool, and met many of the above mentioned naive people. Here I learned that you can get things solved without fighting, and with wrestling I learned what it's like to be part of a team, among countless other lessons. Sadly, my sophomore year of highschool, my adopted dad (the only one I ever remember calling dad, since I was 4 or so) passed due to hepititus C. It was after a few years of suffering, but interestingly enough it was only a few days after my registration date on here, which might imply that his passing challenged my faith in God more than I thought it did at the time.And, here I am in college, a full-fledged adult that knows everything .Just kidding. I still consider myself pretty ignorant of what real problems are like.Edited by One_Charred_Wing, : fixed a typo

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I'm bent, bruised, broken, and a little lost. But you know what? I'm not so afraid as you are, who has never ventured away from the trail.