By Elliot Doomes, January 09, 2020 — My first day in first grade, I remember the fear I had. I was afraid of the teacher, I was afraid of the students who all seemed to be much larger than myself. I can remember the bigger kids in the higher grades. Our school went from first grade to sixth grade. Then from sixth grade, you went to middle school. I, being one of the small kids, for the first three grades was bullied and harassed by the bigger and older kids. I only lived about two and a half blocks from the school, and I always seemed to be being chased and running home after school. And one day running home, my mother was looking out the window, and she came downstairs and she locked the door. The kid that was behind me was so close to me when I bounced off the door we came face to face. That was a scary moment for me. I had no place to go, nowhere else to run.
I guess he was as shocked as I was, the boy that was chasing me. He was the sort of boy that used to pick on me all the time because I wouldn’t fight him back. I was well protected as a child, so I never had to fight. But when I bounced off that door and had no place to go, I had to fight back. I put my head down and started swinging. Did I win? Who knows? But he never messed with me again after that. In fact, we became friends. As word got around the next day what had happened, I was accepted as one of the guys, because I fought back. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. Fighting back.
