The Fat KId: How My Childhood Made Me Resilient

“Hey fat kid, get the ball!” That’s a comment I heard a lot at my old elementary school, along with comments like “Nice earring, dork,” or “Go play with someone else.” But after all the insults and name calling, today I still know and talk to the people who made fun of me. Why is this? I am now not only a better person on the inside, but on the outside as well. I know that I am stronger inside and more mature than they are. Those sad days, days when I came home to my mom crying because of what people said at school, have made me the man I am today.

“Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you.” That’s what my mom used to tell me, and I believed her. People who meet me now think I am funny and outgoing, and I believe these qualities came from the way I responded to insults – making a joke out of them. I tried to make my personality stand out, pushing insults off to the side and finding ways to have fun.

That said, I was still an overweight child – and no matter how good that overweight child feels on the inside, he’s still going to have a hard time socially. This is why freshman year changed my life. I went through “Daily Doubles,” an extremely grueling two-week period of conditioning and training. I pushed myself through it, hoping it would make me better, and it did. I’m not the fittest person around, but I am a socially confident varsity soccer player – and, even though I don’t smoke or drink like many of my peers, my self-confidence is at an all time high. I have found friends who accept and support me, who have helped me grow as a person.

With all this happening in my life, I don’t regret a thing about the past. My childhood made me resilient to all the criticism in the world, helped me strive to improve myself and seek a better life. I forgive those people who made fun of me when I was little; I have made new friends and stayed out of trouble. Twenty years from now I will probably be just as happy because I took to heart my mother’s phrase: “Sticks and stones will break you bones, but words will never hurt you.”