What sucked when you were a kid? - Page 2 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

pai mei · 09-15-2009, 12:04 AM

School - I am not talking about learning new stuff - I was very curious. I am talking about the formal school, sitting 6 hours a day in a chair from where you are not allowed to move. Bored to death - this is not just an expression. Boredom and formal education really kill people. Transform them. Some manage to escape trough the net. "Civilization".

What did I learn in 12 years ? Nothing. How to read and write. That's all that school taught me. The rest - I read myself out of curiosity. 12 years for that. School only creates machines with human form, bored to death people too broken to question anything. Made to believe they are stupid, taught to listen to authority. See the last quote - the yellow one.

The rest (meaning 50% they did not manage to steal from my life) was perfect.

The Machine in our Heads--Glenn Parton

Quote:

When the child becomes aware of ideas and impulses that oppose the dictates of civilization, s/he experiences anxiety, which is the signal for danger. It is not the insights and urges themselves that the child fears, but rather the reaction to them on the part of those in charge. Since the child cannot escape from those who control its life, s/he runs away from dangerous thoughts and feelings. In other words, the child institutes repression of its primitive self.

Quote:

We have internalized our masters, which is a well-known psychological response to trauma. When faced with overwhelming terror, the human mind splits, with part of itself modeling itself after the oppressor. This is an act of appeasement: "Look," the mind says in effect, "I am like you, so do not harm me." As a result of the civilizing process, together with this psychological defense mechanism known as "identification with the aggressor", we now hear the alien voices of the various representatives of civilization in our heads.

Confederacy of Dunces

Quote:

Listen to the man.

"Ninety-nine [students] out of a hundred," writes Harris, "are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed custom." This is not all accident, Harris explains, but the "result of substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual." Scientific education subsumes the individual until his or her behavior becomes robotic. Those are the thoughts of the most influential U.S. Commissioner of Education we've had so far.

Quote:

Frankfurt, Illinois "I had a rich personal inquiry going on in many things.School was for me a tedious interruption of my otherwise interesting life."

Yelm, Washington "My passion is that my daughter be allowed to grow up being completely who she is. Right now she is a happy, enthusiastic, self-taught child of eight and a half. She taught herself to read at four, reads everything.School to me has always felt sick at the core of its concept."

Madison, Wisconsin "I’m desperate what to do. Three bright and lively children but everyday I see a closing down of enthusiasm as they grind their way through a predetermined school program."Reno, Nevada "My wife and I came to the end of the rope with public education four years ago. I was tired of seeing my once happy child constantly in tears."

Santa Barbara, California "I just took my eight-year-old daughter from school.Bit by bit she was becoming silent, even fearful. From her anxiety to reach the school bus on time to the times she was visibly shaken from criticism of her homework. Day by day she was changing for the worse. But the absolute end was the destructive effect the culture of school childrens values had on her behavior. Now she laughs again. I have my laughing girl back."

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania "School started to destroy my family by dividing usfrom one another instead of joining us. It created separatism among the kids,among the classes, among ages, among parents and children. After I took mysecond grader from school she began to blossom. She loves her time now, the time is the gift."

Huntersville, North Carolina "I defined myself as a child by my accomplishments at school just as I had been taught to. I was a National Merit Scholar and a Presidential Scholar but I couldn’t even make it through two years of college because my own authoritarian schooling had left me completely unprepared to make my own decisions."

St. Louis, Missouri "Mr. Gatto, you are describing my daughter when you name the pathological symptoms our children display as a result of theirschooling. And you are describing me—which pains me almost unbearably to recognize and admit."

Haverhill, Massachusetts "I have no certificates of great accomplishment, no titles, no diploma except a high school one, no degree except when I have a fever. Yet I do have experience gained while raising three daughters. I’d like to paint a picture for you. I had to take my daughter out of kindergarten after five weeks. This happy, self-regulating child I was raising showed great signs of stress in that short of a time. I remembered the rebellion of my two angry teenagers, suddenly made the connection, and took her from school. And so the last girl I raised as a free child. There have been no signs of anger or rebellion since then. That was seventeen years ago

Quote:

"I want to give you a yardstick, a gold standard, by which to measure good schooling.
The Shelter Institute in Bath, Maine will teach you how to build a three thousand square-foot, multi-level Cape Cod home in three weeks' time, whatever your age. If you stay another week, it will show you how to make your own posts and beams; you'll actually cut them out and set them up. You'll learn wiring, plumbing, insulation, the works. Twenty thousand people have learned how to build a house there for about the cost of one month's tuition in public school. (Call Patsy Hennon at 207/442-7938, and she'll get you started on building your own home.) For just about the same money you can walk down the street in Bath to the Apprentice Shop at the Maine Maritime Museum [now in Rockport - ed.] and sign on for a one-year course (no vacations, forty hours a week) in traditional wooden boat building. The whole tuition is eight hundred dollars, but there's a catch: they won't accept you as a student until you volunteer for two weeks, so they can get to know you and you can judge what it is you're getting into. Now you've invested thirteen months and fifteen hundred dollars and you have a house and a boat. What else would you like to know? How to grow food, make clothes, repair a car, build furni-ture, sing?"

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16286882/A...ican-Education

jnthnlllshprd · 09-16-2009, 12:47 PM

Parents were divorced when I was young. Lived between them for years, generally several months or years at a time, without speaking to the other parent at all. Dad was an abusive coke addict who made a living on (i don't know what) and Mom stayed with an abusive alcoholic for 13 years. With Dad, we usually lived in a tent or with one of his friends. Mom lived in a small trailer throughout my entire childhood, which now looks nothing like it used to due to the punishment is sustained from my stepfather. Life wasn't all bad, but it definitely wasn't worth remembering.

biznatch · 09-19-2009, 11:10 AM

What sucked? My mom always wanted me to have long-ish hair, and refused for me to get a buzzcut like that cool kid in 1st grade.
The girl I had a crush on (Candace? I think) was always giggling and feeling the spiky-ness of that kid's head.
One day I decided to cut it myself, with (obviously) disastrous results. The rectifying cut after that was about 3x as bad as the regular haircut.

MarionAP · 09-21-2009, 02:11 PM

I had a great childhood, 1 of four kids to middle class parents, grew up in the country. Spend our summers and weekends roaming around the county on our bikes to which I attribute my life-long love of nature. Being tall I wasn't bullied and my parents got along, mostly.

What sucked? The usual small stuff that seems so huge when you are a kid. The time my aunt and uncle came to visit and brought everyone but me a present (I still am puzzled about that). Other than that, I think I forgot most of anything else.

internet13444 · 09-21-2009, 09:10 PM

I would say school days, Because that time, i was doing almost that everything what others had wanted.

KellyC · 09-21-2009, 09:18 PM

Being small and no money.

Oh wait, that still happens.

lostgirl · 09-24-2009, 06:25 PM

Church, 3 hours every Sunday.

Xerxys · 09-24-2009, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thirdsun

That my last name begins with a W.

In school, that almost always guaranteed that I would be at or near the end of line, the back of the class, the last person called on, the bottom of the list, etc.

You also have a very good chance of becoming president of USA you ungrateful little brat!

rurp · 09-25-2009, 05:25 PM

Know what really sucked?

Growing up in a gambling town in Nevada I was too young to do anything. Now that I'm older and have moved elsewhere, there's nothing to do. Catch 22...

seamaiden · 10-21-2009, 04:43 AM

My Dad died when I was two. We moved a lot. I was picked on at school for being tall, skinny, and ridiculously shy. And my mother would NEVER let me grow my hair long.

GreyWolf · 10-21-2009, 06:02 AM

My grandfather died the year before I was born with no pension, so my father had to take over supporting his mother, sister, & 2 brothers. My mother died when I was 4 so we moved in with my grandmother and my father's siblings. He became an alcoholic and died when I was 29. There were 8 of us living in a 2 bedroom house. We never had a car, or money, or new clothes. We shared a bike between me and my 2 brothers (good luck with that). In high school, I actually had a girl say "You're from there??" and step back 2 steps in disgust.

I had a very good childhood. We never knew we were underprivileged; everyone in our neighbourhood was pretty much in the same economic situation. We had fun, played, did things I would NEVER let my kids do, and enjoyed our life as kids, with all the bumps, bruises and heartache.

What surprises me about this thread isn't the depth of emotional scarring that it reveals, but how many of the posters have managed to deal with it so successfully. It's a testament to the resilience of the human spirit that we can go through what some of you have gone through (mine really wasn't that bad), and still function as adults.

newtx · 10-21-2009, 07:03 AM

Television. 2 channels/black and white/mostly poor reception. The very worst day was Saturday. Laurence Welk day. I'm old enough now I should like it but feel the same way about the show I did as a child. Best childhood TV moment. The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

Plan9 · 10-21-2009, 07:05 AM

Algebra. And it still sucks.

ZombieSquirrel · 10-21-2009, 09:44 AM

I had two older brothers and they liked to torture me. I still have nightmares about the time I was tied to a tree and shot with a b b gun.

Other than sibling trauma, I had a pretty great childhood.

biznatch · 10-22-2009, 03:49 PM

One time, I was talking to a cute girl, when I was around 9.
It was winter, and my nose was stuffy. She said something that caused me to laugh nervously, and snot came out from my nose, and hung there. It was very embarrassing.

Jetée · 10-22-2009, 05:28 PM

wet trousers.

being shy, yet extremely talkative.

being adopted. (this could have been good, and I'm sure it was for the betterment of my life in the long run, but I can't help but think I'd be happier as a poor ragamuffin in the Andes rather than a depressed urbanite who can never commit or attribute empathy onto family and friends.)

having a "jelly belly".

having the "profusely-sweaty" gland, tied to only having my hair cut every 6 months or so, meant I always looked frizzed.

looking back, being a truant. I missed alot of good days because I was always absent.

having the "smarts", yet never living up to my potential.

the past two probably instilled such a strong sense of procrastination and apathy within me that I now fight daily just to survive.

having asthma. I don't know if you ever recover from having it, but at the time, and having to use the clean air respirator/ventillator machine for 20 min. each day, along with the "puffer" was not at all appetizing to a small active boy.

moving from home to home. constantly.

lack of neighborhood friends as a consequence.

mother's death at age 10.

father's alcoholism from age 7 onward.

my intestinal problems of which caused many complications, embarassments, hospitalizations.

other numerous deaths that took its toll on my psyche early on.

my too-naive outlook on pets. I sorely mistreated a fair share of them, and it haunts me whenever I think about it. One instance, is when a puppy was finicky when I picked him up, and I dropped/slammed him back on the ground in a fit. Another, I took a fish out of its aquarium, and I forgot to put him back in, effectively icing him. One last one, in which I let my beloved widower cockatiel live in the same squalor I was, devoid of any light, and he couldn't bear it any longer.
I'm truly sorry, guys.

belts, and the whippings that they presented.

always having hands thrust upon your eyes when the film slut's top was about to come off. I probably wouldn't need to have so much visual splendor daily if I was at least able to glimpse a boobie or two before the age of 12.

having the "sweet blood" while living in Florida, which meant that if I were ever to venture outdoors, at the onset of my return home, I looked like a strawberry's multitudinal seeds with the extreme number of bug bites I was able to accumulate within the span of a few hours.

not taught to be a reader.

never stolen a kiss.

falling in love with my classmates on a too-often basis, and then getting heartbroken because I never had the courage to speak up, and then ten years later you can't help rewinding the tape.

broken and forgotten friendships.

generic cough syrups.

cockroaches and weevils in your cereal.

humidity. everywhere. even during December.

pictures of times I'd much rather have left unremembered.

crying for no particular reason, other to garner attention to something that probably could have resolved itself quicker had I not been such a wussy.

nearly always picked last on a kickball, football, soccer team.

having to walk to and from school for the better part of a decade, and it was never nearer than 1 mile from home. average time to get home: 36 min. from grades 4 to 11.

running to a bus stop, only to see it drive up, stop, and then pull off again, and I'm still huffing more than two blocks away.

laundry days.

shower nights.

being so cold as to wonder why this is happening to me.
as a result, I don't go into a grocery store, Hospital, Church without a sweater on anymore.

discovering Playboy at the age of 12, and actual bangin' pornography not too much later.
The Playboy pcitorials were not too bad; in fact, they may have instilled in me a healthy respect and adoration for the female form, but the mustachioed copulating? It made me sick up until a generation later, which I still don't like all that much, but I can now see the appeal.

the look of a bowl of New England Clam Chowder. (it's not so bad anymore)

being Batman for Halloween for four years, with one year in-between where I dressed a flowery sheet with two eye holes.

on the subject of Halloween; perhaps the worst holiday for me as a kid. I either never got enough candy, had the worst costume, an embarassing day at school, or was in the hospital with all the sickly kids. there was a few last efforts when I was still able to go out, but I either overslept or forgot about what day it was. parades suck, and so does this degenerated excuse for a celebratory day of importance.

at the thought of it, I was almost abducted as a kid at least three times, if not more, yet somehow, I managed to arrive home safely.

crap. having to learn about rape because it had actually occurred to an eighth-grader in the Catholic school I was attending. It had made the papers, and the details in which the teacher did not hold back in re-describing the events to a class of second and third-graders, it was not depressing. It was downright debilitating.

pokemon. (I wasn't a kid when it came out, but it still sucked)

roller skates. (this is more my generation, but I still could never master the brakes, or walking, or anything in them).

not learning how to ride a bike.

I somehow unlearned how to swim at the age of 6, and I never got back into the swing of moving in water at all. All I could ever do at the beach/pool was either flail or sink.

haggling for bedtime back then, when nowadays, kids don't go to bed until at least 10 or 11 pm. What? and they don't go to school until 9 am. What?

uniforms. and only having 4 sets of them.

black clogs.

lice inspections.

eye evaluations.

what's it called? word per minute typing drills. those were awful.

Presidential Fitness Tests.

the word 'computer', and the connotations it held way back when.

the worst moments of my life that I have all but blacked out by now.
perhaps the only good mention and utilization of my poor memory rentention.

remembering that after my mother's death, I could have had the opportunity to live with my rich "Godparents". (whom were actually the attorneys of my mother's estate, and whom I lived with for a summer prior to the one in which I lost her). Instead, I was reloacted far away to live with a man I thought I had escaped, and had to continue to endure the abusiveness.

being short.

being uncoordinated.

being late.

being poor.

being aloof, to the point of being out of touch, distant, and alien.

the feeling right after you vomit. (this may still suck for some as adults, but as soon as I became one, I haven't vomited since.)

yearbooks. (I could never afford them)

hobbies, of which I had none.

my efforts, toys, memories, clothing, possessions, and recounts; all of which had to be abandoned as soon as I came into being and the awareness of an adult.

FlatLand Flyer · 10-24-2009, 12:39 AM

Growing up with a mother who had Multiple Sclerosis, and was bitter about it.

Having to lift each leg for her when she went upstairs to go to bed.

Come home to occasionally with her sitting there crying.

Growing up in a household that did not show any kind of love or affection. (My ex-wife always complained that I didn't give her enough. I didn't/don't know how.)

Being a "bigger" kid. I am still really sensitive to any comment that could be perceived as a put down. Low self-esteem issues still present.

Growing up on a busy 4 lane road.

Watching my dog die of old age then going grocery shopping with my dad right after leaving the vet.

Shoveling snow off of large driveway.

No family vacations.

The Seahawks sucked EVERY year.

Girls (or lack thereof)

Strange Famous · 10-24-2009, 01:29 AM

Had younger sister who died, a father who was somewhat violent (and who I came to hate), a lot of issues with my mother who very clearly favoured my other sister (for reasons I can understand now, didnt then) and who attempted suicide at least twice that I am aware of.

Got kicked out of the house at 14 on Christmas Day (really) - a part of me has always been kind of furious that I allowed myself to go back.

When I was younger I carried around a lot of anger and aggression - but these days I care less and less. I turned out to be the stronger one of all my family - not the forceful or powerful one, but the one who didnt get fucked up or break. Now I understand that the day I (and he) realised I was physically stronger than my dad wasnt really as important as over the years I stopped carrying round anger at myself for allowing myself to be a victim, stopped hating both my parents, etc

Sometimes I come across as depressive, and violent tempered - but I 100% know I will never be like either of my parents. 100%

_

But sometimes I do fear the amount of mental illness (and I men clinically diagnosed mental illness) in my family... but I still am sure that, despite my somewhat volatile moods, I am not like them.

09-19-2009, 11:10 AM	#43 (permalink)
biznatch Junkie Location: France	What sucked? My mom always wanted me to have long-ish hair, and refused for me to get a buzzcut like that cool kid in 1st grade. The girl I had a crush on (Candace? I think) was always giggling and feeling the spiky-ness of that kid's head. One day I decided to cut it myself, with (obviously) disastrous results. The rectifying cut after that was about 3x as bad as the regular haircut. __________________ Check it out: The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread

09-21-2009, 09:10 PM	#45 (permalink)
internet13444 Upright	I would say school days, Because that time, i was doing almost that everything what others had wanted. __________________ Simple interest calculator calculation rates mortgage compound high interest savings account

09-21-2009, 09:18 PM	#46 (permalink)
KellyC Comment or else!! Location: Home sweet home	Being small and no money. Oh wait, that still happens. __________________ Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe? Me: Shit happens.

09-24-2009, 06:25 PM	#47 (permalink)
lostgirl lightform Location: Edge of the deep green sea	Church, 3 hours every Sunday. __________________ We're about to go through the crucible, but we'll come out the other side. We always arise from our own ashes. Everything returns later in its changed form. - Children of Dune

10-21-2009, 06:02 AM	#51 (permalink)
GreyWolf Sober Location: Eastern Canada	My grandfather died the year before I was born with no pension, so my father had to take over supporting his mother, sister, & 2 brothers. My mother died when I was 4 so we moved in with my grandmother and my father's siblings. He became an alcoholic and died when I was 29. There were 8 of us living in a 2 bedroom house. We never had a car, or money, or new clothes. We shared a bike between me and my 2 brothers (good luck with that). In high school, I actually had a girl say "You're from there??" and step back 2 steps in disgust. I had a very good childhood. We never knew we were underprivileged; everyone in our neighbourhood was pretty much in the same economic situation. We had fun, played, did things I would NEVER let my kids do, and enjoyed our life as kids, with all the bumps, bruises and heartache. What surprises me about this thread isn't the depth of emotional scarring that it reveals, but how many of the posters have managed to deal with it so successfully. It's a testament to the resilience of the human spirit that we can go through what some of you have gone through (mine really wasn't that bad), and still function as adults. __________________ *The secret to great marksmanship is deciding what the target was AFTER you've shot.*

09-16-2009, 12:47 PM	#42 (permalink)
jnthnlllshprd Tilted	Parents were divorced when I was young. Lived between them for years, generally several months or years at a time, without speaking to the other parent at all. Dad was an abusive coke addict who made a living on (i don't know what) and Mom stayed with an abusive alcoholic for 13 years. With Dad, we usually lived in a tent or with one of his friends. Mom lived in a small trailer throughout my entire childhood, which now looks nothing like it used to due to the punishment is sustained from my stepfather. Life wasn't all bad, but it definitely wasn't worth remembering.

09-21-2009, 02:11 PM	#44 (permalink)
MarionAP Upright Location: Ottawa, Canada	I had a great childhood, 1 of four kids to middle class parents, grew up in the country. Spend our summers and weekends roaming around the county on our bikes to which I attribute my life-long love of nature. Being tall I wasn't bullied and my parents got along, mostly. What sucked? The usual small stuff that seems so huge when you are a kid. The time my aunt and uncle came to visit and brought everyone but me a present (I still am puzzled about that). Other than that, I think I forgot most of anything else.

09-25-2009, 05:25 PM	#49 (permalink)
rurp Upright Location: USAican	Know what really sucked? Growing up in a gambling town in Nevada I was too young to do anything. Now that I'm older and have moved elsewhere, there's nothing to do. Catch 22...

10-21-2009, 04:43 AM	#50 (permalink)
seamaiden Psycho Location: With the man of my dreams in Halifax Nova Scotia	My Dad died when I was two. We moved a lot. I was picked on at school for being tall, skinny, and ridiculously shy. And my mother would NEVER let me grow my hair long.

10-21-2009, 07:03 AM	#52 (permalink)
newtx Addict	Television. 2 channels/black and white/mostly poor reception. The very worst day was Saturday. Laurence Welk day. I'm old enough now I should like it but feel the same way about the show I did as a child. Best childhood TV moment. The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

10-21-2009, 07:05 AM	#53 (permalink)
Plan9 I Confess a Shiver	Algebra. And it still sucks. __________________ *Whatever you can carry.* "You should not drink... and bake."

10-22-2009, 03:49 PM	#55 (permalink)
biznatch Junkie Location: France	One time, I was talking to a cute girl, when I was around 9. It was winter, and my nose was stuffy. She said something that caused me to laugh nervously, and snot came out from my nose, and hung there. It was very embarrassing. __________________ Check it out: The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread

10-22-2009, 05:28 PM	#56 (permalink)
Jetée The Reforms Location: Rarely, if ever, here or there, but always in transition	what does hard knocks mean? wet trousers. being shy, yet extremely talkative. being adopted. (this could have been good, and I'm sure it was for the betterment of my life in the long run, but I can't help but think I'd be happier as a poor ragamuffin in the Andes rather than a depressed urbanite who can never commit or attribute empathy onto family and friends.) having a "jelly belly". having the "profusely-sweaty" gland, tied to only having my hair cut every 6 months or so, meant I always looked frizzed. looking back, being a truant. I missed alot of good days because I was always absent. having the "smarts", yet never living up to my potential. the past two probably instilled such a strong sense of procrastination and apathy within me that I now fight daily just to survive. having asthma. I don't know if you ever recover from having it, but at the time, and having to use the clean air respirator/ventillator machine for 20 min. each day, along with the "puffer" was not at all appetizing to a small active boy. moving from home to home. constantly. lack of neighborhood friends as a consequence. mother's death at age 10. father's alcoholism from age 7 onward. my intestinal problems of which caused many complications, embarassments, hospitalizations. other numerous deaths that took its toll on my psyche early on. my too-naive outlook on pets. I sorely mistreated a fair share of them, and it haunts me whenever I think about it. One instance, is when a puppy was finicky when I picked him up, and I dropped/slammed him back on the ground in a fit. Another, I took a fish out of its aquarium, and I forgot to put him back in, effectively icing him. One last one, in which I let my beloved widower cockatiel live in the same squalor I was, devoid of any light, and he couldn't bear it any longer. I'm truly sorry, guys. belts, and the whippings that they presented. always having hands thrust upon your eyes when the film slut's top was about to come off. I probably wouldn't need to have so much visual splendor daily if I was at least able to glimpse a boobie or two before the age of 12. having the "sweet blood" while living in Florida, which meant that if I were ever to venture outdoors, at the onset of my return home, I looked like a strawberry's multitudinal seeds with the extreme number of bug bites I was able to accumulate within the span of a few hours. not taught to be a reader. never stolen a kiss. falling in love with my classmates on a too-often basis, and then getting heartbroken because I never had the courage to speak up, and then ten years later you can't help rewinding the tape. broken and forgotten friendships. generic cough syrups. cockroaches and weevils in your cereal. humidity. everywhere. even during December. pictures of times I'd much rather have left unremembered. crying for no particular reason, other to garner attention to something that probably could have resolved itself quicker had I not been such a wussy. nearly always picked last on a kickball, football, soccer team. having to walk to and from school for the better part of a decade, and it was never nearer than 1 mile from home. average time to get home: 36 min. from grades 4 to 11. running to a bus stop, only to see it drive up, stop, and then pull off again, and I'm still huffing more than two blocks away. laundry days. shower nights. being so cold as to wonder why this is happening to me. as a result, I don't go into a grocery store, Hospital, Church without a sweater on anymore. discovering Playboy at the age of 12, and actual bangin' pornography not too much later. The Playboy pcitorials were not too bad; in fact, they may have instilled in me a healthy respect and adoration for the female form, but the mustachioed copulating? It made me sick up until a generation later, which I still don't like all that much, but I can now see the appeal. the look of a bowl of New England Clam Chowder. (it's not so bad anymore) being Batman for Halloween for four years, with one year in-between where I dressed a flowery sheet with two eye holes. on the subject of Halloween; perhaps the worst holiday for me as a kid. I either never got enough candy, had the worst costume, an embarassing day at school, or was in the hospital with all the sickly kids. there was a few last efforts when I was still able to go out, but I either overslept or forgot about what day it was. parades suck, and so does this degenerated excuse for a celebratory day of importance. at the thought of it, I was almost abducted as a kid at least three times, if not more, yet somehow, I managed to arrive home safely. crap. having to learn about rape because it had actually occurred to an eighth-grader in the Catholic school I was attending. It had made the papers, and the details in which the teacher did not hold back in re-describing the events to a class of second and third-graders, it was not depressing. It was downright debilitating. pokemon. (I wasn't a kid when it came out, but it still sucked) roller skates. (this is more my generation, but I still could never master the brakes, or walking, or anything in them). not learning how to ride a bike. I somehow unlearned how to swim at the age of 6, and I never got back into the swing of moving in water at all. All I could ever do at the beach/pool was either flail or sink. haggling for bedtime back then, when nowadays, kids don't go to bed until at least 10 or 11 pm. What? and they don't go to school until 9 am. What? uniforms. and only having 4 sets of them. black clogs. lice inspections. eye evaluations. what's it called? word per minute typing drills. those were awful. Presidential Fitness Tests. the word 'computer', and the connotations it held way back when. the worst moments of my life that I have all but blacked out by now. perhaps the only good mention and utilization of my poor memory rentention. remembering that after my mother's death, I could have had the opportunity to live with my rich "Godparents". (whom were actually the attorneys of my mother's estate, and whom I lived with for a summer prior to the one in which I lost her). Instead, I was reloacted far away to live with a man I thought I had escaped, and had to continue to endure the abusiveness. being short. being uncoordinated. being late. being poor. being aloof, to the point of being out of touch, distant, and alien. the feeling right after you vomit. (this may still suck for some as adults, but as soon as I became one, I haven't vomited since.) yearbooks. (I could never afford them) hobbies, of which I had none. my efforts, toys, memories, clothing, possessions, and recounts; all of which had to be abandoned as soon as I came into being and the awareness of an adult. __________________ As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi

10-24-2009, 12:39 AM	#57 (permalink)
FlatLand Flyer Insane Location: Eastern, WA	Growing up with a mother who had Multiple Sclerosis, and was bitter about it. Having to lift each leg for her when she went upstairs to go to bed. Come home to occasionally with her sitting there crying. Growing up in a household that did not show any kind of love or affection. (My ex-wife always complained that I didn't give her enough. I didn't/don't know how.) Being a "bigger" kid. I am still really sensitive to any comment that could be perceived as a put down. Low self-esteem issues still present. Growing up on a busy 4 lane road. Watching my dog die of old age then going grocery shopping with my dad right after leaving the vet. Shoveling snow off of large driveway. No family vacations. The Seahawks sucked EVERY year. Girls (or lack thereof)

10-24-2009, 01:29 AM	#58 (permalink)
Strange Famous follower of the child's crusade?	Had younger sister who died, a father who was somewhat violent (and who I came to hate), a lot of issues with my mother who very clearly favoured my other sister (for reasons I can understand now, didnt then) and who attempted suicide at least twice that I am aware of. Got kicked out of the house at 14 on Christmas Day (really) - a part of me has always been kind of furious that I allowed myself to go back. When I was younger I carried around a lot of anger and aggression - but these days I care less and less. I turned out to be the stronger one of all my family - not the forceful or powerful one, but the one who didnt get fucked up or break. Now I understand that the day I (and he) realised I was physically stronger than my dad wasnt really as important as over the years I stopped carrying round anger at myself for allowing myself to be a victim, stopped hating both my parents, etc Sometimes I come across as depressive, and violent tempered - but I 100% know I will never be like either of my parents. 100% _ But sometimes I do fear the amount of mental illness (and I men clinically diagnosed mental illness) in my family... but I still am sure that, despite my somewhat volatile moods, I am not like them. __________________ "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered." The Gospel of Thomas