Catholic School

Daily writing prompt

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

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I felt out of place on the first day of middle school. I tried very badly to be “popular.” I did not have the right background to make it to be as popular as I desired to be. I was unprepared to cope with the humiliation that occurred what I tried to sit at the “popular” table at lunch. I was surrounded by young, privileged teens. I was a young, privileged teen myself. However, I did not recognize it at all, and totally took it for granted.
Part of the reason I felt so out of place was because I had been raised in a very non-materialistic way. The girls in my class I saw as “popular” had all been raised by very materialistic parents, and it showed. They wore clothes from Hollister and Abercrombie, but my parents had forbidden me from buying anything from Abercrombie. Everybody seemed to like the popular girls in my class. I adopted these values as a way to try to fit in, to try to be liked. It was all for naught, though.
I attended public high school, and my past sheltered existence harmed me in a big way when I was 16. On June 6th of 2011, I passed my driver’s license exam on the first try. Four months later, on October 7th of 2011, I was driving way too fast on an empty rural road near my house. This was the day of the birthday of the father who regularly hit my best friend. So, I was so angry at the time that I clipped a guide wire and nearly killed myself. I spent 7 weeks in a coma at Children’s hospital of Wisconsin. I woke up slowly. My brain was still healing – I remember being very confused about where I was when I first became sentient. I won’t even go into the insane delusions and dreams I had during this time. I had to relearn everything – to move, to talk, and to think again. It took me 120 days, but I finally made it to being able to walk again. I clutched the walls for balance. At this time, I was truly sentient, and begged to go home. I was discharged on January 20th, 2012.