I'm overweight. I know I am, and I don't need that pointed out. When I was in elementary school, I started gaining weight. They didn't know why. But it's because I am a hypothyroid - it has to do with your metabolism. Being a hypothyroid means that I can exercise as much as I please but I probably won't lose any weight. I'll probably gain it.
But a few days ago, I was enjoying being outside with my friends, when a Boy (let's call him Boy A) started comparing me to another boy, who is significantly more overweight than I. Boy A isn't skinny, either or what some people call "normal". Boy A is another person people mock and call fat, etc. He's done that before, and he's my friend. It annoys me, and obviously, it hurts.
So, I just got angry and started yelling at him. I mean, you don't say things like that. Especially to someone that is about a foot taller than you. I said that I'm hypothyroid and I take medicine and it's seriously not my fault I am how I am. And after I said all this, and other stuff I just walked away. And I almost started crying right there on the playground. I just, like, lost it. He keeps doing that and it's annoying and it hurts. I'm a girl! In general we have body issues!
Because he doesn't know how hard it's been - having to get up early to take my medicine. And he doesn't know that every so often, I go to my doctor to hear him say, "You haven't lost anything." He doesn't know that him saying stuff like that makes me cry myself to sleep. He doesn't know that saying that hurts so much that I go home and take a shower so my tears will blend in with my wet skin. It hurts. And he's heard this, you'd think he'd know this.
It hurt bad enough that I went home and at eight-ish when I was taking my shower and as I was crying (again), I got empowered to write this story. No one can see how hard it is to say this on the computer. All you see is printed words. But oh golly, at lunch - I was almost going to start crying, so much that it would wash away all the cars and dirt and trees and children like a river.
It hurt bad enough that I walked around sad, for like, the rest of the day.
It hurt bad enough that I didn't talk to him for a while.
It hurt bad enough that it still hurts and I keep thinking about what he said.
It's stupid. I know. I should let it go. But I can't . . .
So that's all I have to say, really. You don't know what people's lives are like. You don't know if that little, teensy tiny joke you made will make someone cry later, because someone else hurt them then, too.
That conversation you give your two cents into might make that person not too happy. Think about how someone might take that before you say it. See how they react. And make sure they know your little joke is a joke, too. Not something that hurts, so they go home and do a billion sit ups to not be as big.
~ anonymous author . . . off to do four hundred sit ups and like, a hundred push ups.
