Hi Muji.... sorry your friend blew you off... I have no "High School Story" because I didn't go to "High School" ! And the reason "Why" is because I didn't fit in.... so it was easier to leave... I was always a "Misfit" and never fit in... still don't.... If I wasn't rescued by the man who later became my husband... I would of been dead by the age of 17! Blessings all !
MJ

There's a heck of a story to be told there, my jimmy. Wow!

Hi Muji, I hope I didn't minimize your feelings !
MJ

Another hand up. Since maybe first grade, though there were moments of belonging to this odd group or that. The thrill of feeling like a renegade soothes somewhat.

Muji, maybe your friend blew you off for reasons other than you. My social anxiety can be so wicked. I've done the exact thing to others :(

Sorry you're not feelin well.

Thanks. I think the antibiotics are working. Hoping to be a little better for the trip back on Monday.

Yeah, I'm not at the center of things, so it could be for reasons other than me. I do really feel sorry for him if he actually got a cold as bad as mine--a bronchial infection that took antibiotics to fight. Haven't missed a sick day at work in 2 years! And so I get sick and take 2 sick days on my vacation? Really?

Well, at least you didn't miss work? I hope the antibiotics work. Rest a lot, okay? There's something to be said for lying in a hotel room with room service if available and just snoozing a lot (I dream of it, actually....)

Soft healing to you

You're right, at least I didn't miss work, Leo. And at the hotel they take good care of me, though there's no room service. That would really be cool!

being poor and not having decent clothers money and alot of abuse i always felt horrible about myself free school lunches failing grades bullying is what i did remember i got in the school band at 12 and that was my life i had nothing but my trumpet and it was my escape i wanted to do so much but i could not i barely made it out by disacociating and i carried inside me so much pain and sorrow anger so i threw it all into the music got a chip on my shoulder and ran away to the army band and music was the drug adult life full of ups and downs , but funny i was a good teacher and ended up as a band director of many needy kids like me and was able to transform my experiences those successes have kept me from suicide many times that is what i have to share ,, music became a lifeline teaching all of it probably done shut down but still play a mean trumpet at sixty LOL i loved to bust on the bullies though and set them straight

free, the mention of being poor resonated with me. I was SO lucky to fall into the opportunity to go to an upper crust British prep school on the mission field. As I've explained, it was the only benefit the missions board gave families like mine: the promise that their kids would be taught in English wherever they were sent in the world. And in my case, to be taught in English meant going to this exclusive school.

It required uniforms, of course. The idea was to make us kids all equal, but there are many ways to show economic class difference with a uniform. I wore a second hand blazer and cheap vinyl shoes, while the rest of the kids wore new blazers and designer leather shoes, accessorized with Rolex watches. I do mean Rolex watches. Some of my classmates missed school for a week every year to go skiiing--not in the local Andes mountain ski resorts of South America (which already were posh), but in the Swiss Alps, 8,000 miles away.

It was weird to be a poor kid with Appalachian parents among these uber-rich celebrity kids.

It's so cool, then, free, that we both became teachers. I first taught high school in the Ozarks among hillbilly kids, and now I teach community college in the Appalachians among hillbilly kids, too. I think it has to do with seeing the extreme level of privilege being born to money brought those kids at my preppie high school. It made me want to help kids from family backgrounds like mine be sure to get a good education, too.

In the first ten years of my career I worked at a private university where most of my students were upper middle class kids from the suburbs. I left, though, even though I had tenure. That was no good for my earning power or career status. Lots of my peers consider that I sabotaged my career because of my PTSD and that I'm a loser with low self esteem.

It's very possible that I am a freaky loser with self esteem who sabotaged my own career. I get that. Yet there's an additional factor in that I do actually care about public school lower class students getting a good education, too, even if it's at a community college. I know as careers go it was dumb of me and I don't recommend if you want to have a career that climbs, but that's how it went when I followed my heart like a fool after seeing how the other half lives.

you are anything but a loser all the folks on here count on you, anybody who has a heart for others and compassion like you described for the poor kids is no loser muj you are a winner anybody here still alive w ptsd i have read are all winners right