Raymond is cooking dinner so I am going try to get this one out.
We gathered in the auditorium of my senior high school to recognize those who were graduating. I made it to my senior year. Barbara Streisand’s “The Way We Were” began to play. I was safely seated. Childhood images of the graduating class were displayed on the overhead projector. My classmates cheered and laughed.
Then it hit me. My picture may appear. How will my classmates react? The fear overcame me. Not because I saw myself as a martyr or because of a self-fulfilling prophecy I need to prove, but I understood I was different and my classmate didn’t like me. I prepared myself. It happened.
A first-grade picture of me appeared on the screen. I was dressed in a white shirt and plaid jumper. My mother was proud of me, but I had thick glasses. I stared at myself on that huge screen. Where was the applause the other students got when their pictures were displayed? It seemed the silence and humiliation lasted forever, but no real harm was done because I knew what to expect and put my armor on.
How does one overcome adversity? That's how.
