I was 6
GiphyI wrote a letter to my Grandma that died on Christmas day and put it in her casket at her funeral. My aunt took it out and gave it back to me and told me I couldn't do that. I was 6.
Salty Forever
I got in trouble in 6th grade for reading during home room. Home room was like a random 30 min period to work on homework but I always did my homework the night before so I would just quietly read. For some reason my home room teacher hated it. One day she just yelled at me for always reading in her class and told me to do my homework. I told her all of my homework was done. She told me to prove it so I showed her all of my completed homework. Then she confiscated my book and sent me to the principal's office for being disrespectful. I'm still salty about it.
The Ball Game
When I was probably around 8 or so I was at a baseball game with my family. Naturally I was hoping I'd be able to get a ball and one of the players saw me in the stands looked directly at me and threw a ball to me. Then some guy probably college aged proceeded to reach over my shoulder and snatch the ball before it got to me. I turn around and he and all his friends are laughing and celebrating. Almost 20 years later I'm still a bit salty about it.
the eggs have it....
Easter Eggs GIFGiphyI was at an Easter Egg hunt when I was around 6. It was in a big park area with lots of rocks.
I saw a little chocolate egg foil glisten and ran over to pick it up. As I reached my hand out to pick it up a man trod on my hand to stop me getting it, then he called his kid over to "find" it.
The Shame
A math teacher handed back our tests in class. They were graded and marked and all that. She was going over some of the questions that most people got wrong (myself included), so I was writing down some notes on my test so I could reference it later and remind myself why I got things wrong and what I was supposed to do.
She ripped my test away from me and started screaming at me that cheating is absolutely not allowed and that I should be ashamed of myself. Confused and in shock, I started choking up and tried to explain that I was just trying to take notes. One of the most humiliating times of my childhood (around 13 years old), and I still don't understand why it happened.
Lunch Lady Talk
In elementary school I use to talk to the lunch lady everyday and then the one day I didn't say hi. She came to my lunch table and told me I was fake, phony, and a few other things and stopped speaking to me. I still don't understand what her problem was.
Trash Human
My sixth grade teacher didn't like me, I had transferred into her class when the TaG teacher was needed elsewhere, and this teacher was resentful. She was going to have the class read The Hobbit (long, long before any movies). I was excited, I had ready read it and the Trilogy the year before. She called me a liar in front of the whole class, then went on a tirade about how kids like me were terrible and thought we were better.
I was a quiet shy girl, and cried. She mocked that too. The rest of the year was hell, she let her pets (officers' kids, it was a school near a Navy base) bully me. I was never good enough. She couldn't fail me because I excelled at bookwork, but she picked on me at every turn. Trash human.
Preschool Daze
kids GIF by CheezburgerGiphyPreschool me wasn't sure if shaking hands should come after or before getting awarded a prize on stage. Adult snatched my prize out-of-reach to hall full of guffawing adults. Preschool me burst out in tears and was led off-stage. Parent scolded me for making her look bad.
52 Pick Up
My mom asked if I wanted to play 52 card pick up, while my friends were over. I asked her what it was and she said I either want to play or I don't. I told her I didn't want to play anything if I didn't know what it was. She got visibly irritated and threw the cards on the ground and said "this is 52 card pick up, pick them up." She then threatened to ground me as she watched me pick the cards up and put them away nicely. I think it was worse because my friends were watching.
"Oh, you're here too"
shade sips tea GIFGiphyOne of my uncles was in a years-long fight with my mom.
To stir trouble, any time he greeted my sister and I, he would tell my sister how beautiful and wonderful she is and to me just say "Oh, you're here too" and then promptly ignore me the rest of the night. I used to adore him up to that point so this ended up in me being extremely hurt and crying to my mom for hours about how I'm ugly and not special.
He got his petty vengeance on my mother and crushed my self-esteem. Till today I don't forgive him for it.
In the Writings....
I have horrible handwriting. I have forever, no amount of intervention or practice has helped. When I was in 5th grade, my Social Studies teacher seemed to take a lot of pleasure in constantly reminding me of how awful my hand writing was. We used to have to bring out notebooks up for her to check our homework. I dreaded this so damn much. She would hold up my notebook so the whole class could laugh at my handwriting. I'm grown now, that was a long time ago, but I still hate to have hand write anything that other people will see.
Write It
talking season 3 GIFGiphyI broke two fingers on my dominant hand in 9th grade and had a splint on them so I couldn't write. I had a test at school and the teacher made me write with my left hand then marked my answers wrong because she couldn't read them.
The Grunt
At 16 years old, I had a job at a gas station after school. Did all the grunt work (sweeping cigarettes in the parking lot, emptying trash bins, etc.).
I'm taking the trash out one day and a grown ass man in his 40s comes up to me and says something along the lines of "I make more money in a week than you do in a whole year" and all I could think at the time was "Well yeah, I sure hope you do I'm in high school".
Such a petty thing to say to a kid just trying to make a little bit of money after school.
Not my Auntie
My aunt was unpleasant or weird with everyone but always particularly cold to me. One day when I was about 14 she took me aside and said she'd held a grudge against me because of my name - she had wanted to call her first daughter that name but my parents had had a child first and used it (they had no idea she wanted the name and aren't the kind of people who would have done it on purpose).
She said she'd tried really hard and had just about forgiven me for it.
I just remember being baffled by it and then feeling sorry for her for being that spiteful, to be honest, but it palled later in comparison with all the other crazy horrible things she did to her own family.
Salty Salty
salt bae GIFGiphyHad a teacher in kindergarten threaten to expel me because I was sick and didn't show up the day before.
She put me on the spot in front of the whole class telling me not to lie and that she'd call the principal. I cried in front of the whole class not knowing what to do. Apparently she wanted to win some attendance award and thought confronting a child was a good idea. Like bruh I was freaking 5.
Still salty on how she got away with it.
Such Logic
I was moving away from home to go to college, and I asked my parents if I could borrow one of their PCs to take with me. The family had three and it would just be mum and dad at home after I left. Mum got enraged at the cheek of my asking, she said that she was going to lend me one but now she won't because I asked. She did however, find a discarded pc and monitor at the local dump and gave it to me. That of barely ran solitaire - but I made use of the monitor.
It always always gets me even now. It would have been worse surely, if I expected to be lent one out of entitlement rather than asking?
Her logic never made sense though and I'm still untangling all the contradictions and panic I feel every day about everything I say and do.
Slaps
In grade four, a teacher gave us a few questions before lunch break and expected us to answer each of them correctly right after the break was over. A classmate couldn't get a few answers correct so the teacher made him walk to each bench and get a slap from each student present in the class.
Thinking about the incident now, I feel like going back in time and beat the crap of that horrible teacher.
Ms. Easton
I got a "0" on a history assignment in fourth grade because I "improperly cited a source" for one of the pictures I used, meaning it was plagiarism. The citation I used was from the educational website I got the picture from, and it was to the format she wanted. I simply forgot a period at the end. Forget you Ms. Easton. This was at least 2 decades ago and I'm just remembering it.
Betrayal
Traitor GIF by memecandyGiphyI did a chore that my father had asked me to do. My mom got home and commented on how nicely the chore was done. My father took credit for it in front of me - so I fired back saying that I was the one who had done it... he then yelled at me and called me a traitor.
Run Boy Run
I was a chubby kid, so when I was 12 I decided I would go for runs around the neighborhood, at dusk so people wouldn't stare at the fat kid so much. On the second or third run, some guy walking his dog unleashes it and sics it on me for craps and giggles. And calls it back just before it gets to me.
I stopped going for runs after that.
Edit:For everyone asking, this was quite a while ago and I did eventually get back into running a few years later. Even ran a half-marathon a while back.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.