You just can't be yourself...........

Grade 3
On an afternoon in 1997 I spent a couple hours building a mask it was made out of a box, Some construction paper and felt pens. I was such a creative little kid I would spend hours on my bedroom floor creating new toys that meant a lot to me. Anyways I was so proud of this mask I made. I remember it. It was a monster mask with a hole for a mouth I could see through. I used yellow paper and lined the mouth with sharp yellow teeth, I drew angry eyes and even added eyebrows . I remember putting so much detail into this mask. I was very exited to show everyone at school what I worked on. My mom said “It’s not a good idea Marlys….You could get made fun of.” I was so stubborn I did not listen to my mom and wore it to school the next day. When I arrived at school kids came up to me and said I looked stupid and the traditional verbal bullying happened all morning. At recess I went outside and the whole lunch hour a few kids were punching the box mask on my head and I was crying. I came crying to my grade 3 teacher who looked like a wicked witch. I cried to her that kids were trying to hurt me and punching my mask. The teacher took my mask away and put in on the shelf and told me “Each time you cry your mask will move closer to the garbage and than you won’t have your mask at all” So I did stop crying I held back my tears and thought the teacher was right and I wanted to keep my mask because it was so special to me. I doubt my mom ever heard of this story. I haven’t even thought about it for a long time it just came to me out of the blue. I never came home crying to my mom about this and other issues. I would just go back playing on the floor with cracker boxes, scissors, Felt Pens and tape or play with the younger kids outside. I gave up on the mask and thought it was a worthless piece of junk. I learned one lesson: You can’t be yourself in life. There is no freedom. If you are naturally a social rebellion and they will try to make you normal and perfect. I forgive those nasty kids they were young. The first thing a kid does when they realize someone is different is abuse them for power than all kids will come running and want that power too so they get under the peer pressure to bully. Just like war. Just like Hitler who killed anyone who was unlike his own race religion and mind. It’s all about the power. It’s a human nature to abuse in order to get power.