Suddenly, from the shadows, came a fork in the road... Part I

Before I begin relating what was, to this point, the most pivotal event in my life, I want to take a moment to thank BlackOps over at Sojourner Browny for inspiring me to share these events with anyone who will stop and read them. Sometimes there is value in the sharing, even if only a few receive it.

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I've always been a big guy. I remember Mom ordering school clothes for me when I was young and the size was "Husky." Speaks volumes doesn't it? One of the most difficult lessons that I had to learn growing up is that people can be just downright mean when they choose to be... especially kids. Elementary school wasn't so bad (though the part of one year that I had to wear an eye patch was pretty bad... I'll save that one for another post.) As I progressed through middle school and then on into junior high, I was increasingly the butt of the jokes of my classmates. In my early youth, I had been almost a precociously outgoing child, and as the weight of my peers ridicule pressed down on me, I began a slow, irrevocable slide; descending inside of myself and only opening up to my closest friends and family.

By the time I had reached 7th grade, I was not the same person that I used to be. I endured a daily ritual at school of being laughed at, called names, tripped and spit on. In retrospect, I think now that I should've taken matters into my own hands. I was bigger than most of my tormentors. If I had decided to hurt someone to make them stop, then this story might be drastically different than it is. But that's not the kind of person I am. As I've matured, I know that conflict is necessary and sometimes positive, but back then, conflict... fighting... that was not what I wanted to be a part of at all, so I endured as much as I could.

The pivotal day came in early spring, 1988. Recess wasn't what it used to be. The after lunch ritual of playtime was the only time I had to myself away from the harassment of my classmates. I did have a few friends and on this particular day, I was enjoying talking with one of them under a tree at the bottom of a hill. At the top of the hill sat my school building. The junior high had been there for ages, and still churns out teenagers to high school every year back in my hometown. If you haven't ascertained it by this point, I was a misfit in school. Most definitely a nerd and still am to this day (though now I can wear the label with pride.) I enjoyed learning stuff in school, loved science and computers, wore big ugly glasses, and dressed with all the style of big kid who let his Mom pick his clothes for him. On this particular day, my friend and I were engaged in a heady discussion on the merits of warp drive and the potential of actually propelling starships through space by means of controlled matter/anti-matter reactions. (I know... it kinda makes you want to beat me up even now doesn't it? What a dufus I was! :-) )

The school was probably 20-30 yards from me, and up the hill... probably a 10 foot difference in elevation from the covered walkway outside the school to the bottom of the hill where I stood. The conversation was moving fast, and I believe we had almost worked out how to make dilithium crystals when suddenly, from the shadows, came a fork in the road. It took the form of rock... approximately 3 inches in diameter. Said rock had just squarely impacted me in the side of the head, and I now found myself heaped on the ground from the force of the blow. Feeling a knot already starting to rise on the side of my head, I scanned around me to see what had happened. With my friend quickly at my side he told me that the rock had come from the shadowy, covered walkway of the school. The perpetrators were long gone, no doubt laughing about their successful sneak attack.

I did the only thing I could do, continue the rest of my day. I wasn't bleeding, but I had a tightness in the temple of my forehead from the knot where the stone had hit me. It was a distraction but I finished my day and went home to recount what had happened to my parents. Needless to say they were furious that something like this would happen and concerned about me. Then, we made the most startling discovery of this event. My father asked me to take off my glasses so he could see the still hurting knot on my head. When I did take off my metal framed spectacles, the pain in the side of my head went away. Then I saw my Dad gasp and take my glasses in his hand. The earpiece on the right-hand side of my glasses was bent at a startling angle. The bend of the metal was pressing into the temple of my forehead, and I had mistaken it for a knot from the impact.

The next day I missed school and went to the doctor to be checked out (I did have a slight bruise) and we showed him my glasses. He was dumbfounded. These were heavy, metal frame glasses, bent at least to a 10-15 degree angle. The rock must've been moving at quite a speed to achieve this. The doctor grew solemn and handed the glasses back to me. "If you hadn't been wearing these glasses yesterday, you would probably be dead. The rock impacted exactly on the right temple. These glasses saved your life."

But that was only the beginning of the story...