Water off a duck’s back
A few years after I graduated from high school, I was back in my hometown for the summer and a kid I knew from school came up to me at the grocery store. “I was always impressed by you,” he said. He’d been one of the guys who relentlessly tormented me – about being shy, about my weight, about how I was the Smart One instead of the Sports One. “You just kept going. You didn’t give a crap about what anybody said. Water off a duck’s back, man.”
He’d been to therapy because he was abused as a child and became a bully to compensate. It was the only way he’d known how to get the anguish out. “I wish I had your coping mechanism.” It was a therapy term. “Nobody should have to put up with that shit. I’m sorry.”
Funny how different we look from the outside.
Wow, that’s incredible. I’m impressed that he was able to own his shit, and that he apologized to you. That takes guts.
I’m also impressed with you for being able to keep on keeping on.
Thanks for sharing this.