Did you ever have a time in your childhood

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I have a couple.

Last year at the beginning of the second semester, I was alone at lunch - none of the handful of friends I had were in the same lunch block as I was.

The next table over was a trio of senior girls and a guy. One of them I vaguely knew, she and I had been in a class together and had talked once, briefly.

One day one of the other girls, by the name of Shelby, turned around and said "Hey, come eat lunch with us!" She did it out of pity, but every day for the next few days she invited me to sit with them, until I started sitting there habitually. At first I wasn't really involved with their conversation, and I never got to be regularly part of it, but eventually I wound up a part of the group. All of them but one of the guys (who was rarely ever there, so I didn't get to know him) wound up being very good friends of mine, and Shelby's like a sister to me now. Great people, all. NTs, popular girls, but great people still. Not your usual type of popular chick.

In another event, I went to a rifle camp in North Carolina with the gun club I shoot at. It was a highpower rifle clinic, but I only knew one other shooter, a really quiet 18-year-old, and the two coaches.

When were got there, there were about a dozen of us ranging in age from 13 to 18 (I'm 16). As usual, the group started splitting into factions. The biggest had its corner of the barracks, and was led by a couple of popularish kids. I was expecting them to be as*holes, but they turned out to be pretty cool. Definitely not my type of people, and not friends, but not enemies other, just dudes who were there.

The problem was another kid who the others did know, he had been on the team for awhile. And he took a dislike to me, -fast-. He was annoying as hell, whiny, just a general SOB. I was expecting that I and my buddy I had known previously were going to wind up chilling by ourselves while as*hole, the whiny kid, hung out with the rest of the team...

Didn't turn out that way. The part of the team not busy gathering around the popularish kids (who weren't part of our rifle team, they were just in the same barracks) left us well enough alone, but we'd occasionally trade jokes and whatever. I kept to myself a lot, talking with my buddy, one other guy who joined us, or a few people who drifted back and forth between groups.

On the last couple days, as*hole - that wound up becoming the team's nickname for him - started really going after me hard. It reached a head when most of the team was in the Pits at the wrong end of the rifle range, in a half-bunker made of concrete, pulling and marking targets... as*hole started throwing jabs and insults my way something fierce, and because my closest two buddies weren't there I was expecting the team was probably going to sit down, shut up, and let him have his way (though I could have dealt with him, and there were Marine instructors nearby). Not so. as*hole started in on me - and half the rest of the team lit -him- up instead. It was great. I feel sorry for him, but for once in my life, NTs I didn't know well stood up for me, really stood up for me, against someone who was being... well, a major as*hole to me. I'm hoping that when I go to Basic Combat Training it'll be like that too. We'll see.

But it was great to be the guy able to target - not the target itself.

And being the one able to target, being the one calling the targets, isn't necessarily bad. After all, justice is an eye for an eye, mostly. If a bully or an as*hole gets his handed to him, isn't it justice? Use your ability to call the shots responsibly and everyone will be all the better for it.

/unintentional derail

The most meaningful things to me socially occurred this year. This summer I spent a lot of time introspecting. This helped me realize that a lot of the people I thought I liked actually didn't really like me that much. I put the pieces of the puzzle together. I'd have people whom I thought were my friends who would insult me and tell me what's wrong with me and would walk away when I was talking to them, and I've realized I was a fool for trusting them. I've moved on and will be avoiding them because I think it's safer for me, because I wasn't too happy back then.

The other most meaningful thing was coming to high school. I know high school is terrible for a lot of people, but everyone at the one I'm attending is very nice. I have people who actually care about me. People who will listen to what I say and respect me. People who compliment me and tell me what they like about me. It's a much more positive environment. I get near-perfect grades now and am on the honor roll and things are really looking up for me. All of the administrators and teachers know my name and treat me kindly and they take my needs seriously. This is the first time I've ever felt like a valued part of a school, and not just an annoying burden nobody wants to have to deal with.