Well, the worst injury I’ve probably received on the school yard is getting my toes broken. And I’m sorry if this makes whoever’s listening to this sad to hear, but when I was young, I was teased relentlessly and had not a single friend until I moved away in fifth grade to a different school.
I was that kid. I was fat. I was poor. I was dirty. I was five feet tall in kindergarten and stuck out like a sore thumb. So I was just constantly ridiculed and picked on, and literally hurt by other children.
Well, one day we were all standing in the bus lines, and a kid — I believe he was like a grade above me — I was only in like, first or second grade. He had a bat for, you know, whatever. Practice, playing on — playing baseball on, you know, recess or whatever he wanted to do, you know? And as we were waiting to get in the lines to get on the buses to go home, he took that bat and he kept just popping it on my toes.
I was wearing sandals — I was wearing little white sandals, and he just kept hitting my toes with it, and it was hurting, but I wouldn’t say anything ‘cause I was a very weird kid. I probably discovered I’m probably autistic but was just never diagnosed or anything. So I didn’t say anything. I just stood there and eventually there were, like, tears rolling down my face, but I still wasn’t saying anything or telling anybody ‘cause I was a very awkward, shy, quiet kid that didn’t talk to really anybody for years.
But when I got home — by the time I got home, my toes were like, already black and blue and swollen. And my mom had to, like, tape them together, ‘cause we were pretty sure they were broken to make sure they just, you know — for a couple weeks, make sure they healed up.
And that’s probably the worst injury I think I’ve gotten on a schoolyard ‘cause I wasn’t the kid that was always playing sports or running or, you know, being real wild on the playgrounds. Because in those years we didn’t even have playgrounds, it was basically elementary school. Like I said, I didn’t have friends. I didn’t play on the playground. I usually just sat in the corner by the doors until — until it was time to line up to go back in.
But thanks for listening.