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My life in school, part 1: The Past

Accept challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.

~ George S. Patton

Hello everyone. Someone on Teens4TS asked me to put up a blog about how my life in school was both previously and currently. So this blog will be about my past and the next blog will be about how my school life is now.

My life in public school sucked. I was always bullied, and even though I had some friends, it still felt lonely going there. Every school that I moved to started out OK, but then it would become a not-so-nice place to be. I was a follower, and I was easily influenced by others. Many friends I made were manipulative and just not good kids to be around. In second grade, I had a friend who smoked and his parents were fine with it. That was sad to find out.

After going through public school for so long, I went to a private school starting in fourth grade. That year was great! I made friends and people were nice to me. I felt like I finally belonged somewhere. In fifth grade, things changed. The teacher for the first half of the year was tougher, but a good one. She gave us what we needed. I didn’t like homework, but I knew it was needed to help make us smarter and understand what we were dealing with in the real world. Everyone else complained, but I knew why she was harder.

Halfway through the year, she had a stroke and couldn’t come back for the rest of the year. She is great now, but it was shocking then. So, we got a new teacher. Now, this teacher rarely gave us any homework and was much easier. You would think that I’d be much happier, but I knew something was up. She didn’t seem all that nice, and no homework isn’t necessarily the best thing. And gradually, my classmates became meaner. I was best friends with the teacher’s daughter, though.

Now, sixth grade was — excuse me for my language — pure hell. That was the year when I got diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. And my teacher was a hypocrite and just pure evil. I swear I was her only target.

Math is my worst subject, so I wasn’t doing the best in it. But after she accused me of lying about my TS and and lying about my stomach aches (it was bad constipation) to my mom, she lost all of my respect. I stopped doing my homework, especially my math homework. She judged everyone even though she taught us to never judge anyone. I’m surprised I even passed the grade. But, I’m glad I did.

Sadly, that’s also the year that all of my classmates showed their true colors and became very nasty. They laughed at me, called me names, talked behind my back, etc. That was a very hard year for me, obviously. But, it made me realize that most of the kids that went there were judgmental and what the teachers were teaching us was very…what’s the word…narrow-minded.

Seventh grade was another very hard year — a year I’d never finished, and here’s why: My tics had changed into a barking sound, so I would sound like a dog without realizing it. I always thought it was forceful exhalation, but my parents told me I sounded like a dog (not making fun of me, just stating an opinion.) So, of course, my classmates made fun of me.

But this time, the teachers joined in — all but one of them, my world history teacher. I loved her. But, the worst of them all was my science teacher. The sad thing was that she used to be my best friend growing up. But she made fun of me in front of the whole class. I also have auditory processing disorder (APD) and she knew that. So she said something that I didn’t absorb fully. When she saw I didn’t listen, she went over and hit me on the head with a roll of paper and said I didn’t listen. She laughed right afterward, and the class joined her. I call her a monster now. Another teacher losing my respect.

I became very depressed when it was almost halfway through the year. I was so depressed that I became suicidal. Now, honestly, I can’t remember if I was truly suicidal or if I was just thinking about it. But I know that I was so depressed that I didn’t care anymore. The school did so many things. They even made a stupid contract that all students had to sign, and one of the things said we couldn’t talk about homosexuals. I have two moms, so that’s a little difficult to avoid.

One day, a couple of my so-called “friends” made fun of me and it got so bad that I asked my mom after school if I could skip school for a day. She said, “You know what? I’m taking you out for good.” And I was scared for a while because I didn’t want to get in trouble. But, mom saved my life. And after nine months of waiting and planning, I became a student of Florida Virtual School, and I will talk about that in the next blog.

That is my story about my life in previous schools. Hope you are all having an amazing day. :)

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RowenaM

12 Comments

  1. wow rowena that is really sad. how r u doing in school now? is that what the next part of this is? i hope things have gotten so much better 4 u!

      • yep just have lots of schoolwork. getting ready for winter track. its always interesting because my tics are worse in the winter but when i focus on my running they dont seem to bother me.

        • I have lots of schoolwork too. In the winter, when I am focused on either writing or having fun in general, my tics become very low. I don’t know what it is, but that’s just how it is for me. I will be very busy this weekend so I don’t know when I will be able to post part 2. :)

          • I love how you describe your tics as low, medium and high. You should create a tic level meter and patent it. You could make money!

          • Joshua: Haha! I should shouldn’t I? It’s the only way I find that makes sense to describe them as. I like the meter idea. :)

  2. Wow. that’s a powerful story. I’m so sorry you had to endure all of that bullying, especially from teachers themselves. They should have learned about Jaylens Challenge, my favorite organization that helps stop bullying (jaylenschallenge.org). Jaylen also has Tourette’s and was bullied badly for it. I suggest you read his story and get some inspiration from it. I know I did. Hope i helped you out. And from here you can only go onward and upward, so keep your head up!

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