I remember the first time I was bullied - it was in sixth grade in a language arts class. We were doing peer spelling tests and everyone else had partnered up. I was too embarrassed to admit that I didn't have a partner so I was just sitting by myself taking the test. Suddenly, this girl walked in late to class and sat down across from me. She asked her friend what we were doing and when she learned that she needed a partner she looked around for someone  to partner with. It was clear that I was the only option. But right there - close enough for me to hear - she said that she wouldn't want to partner with me. Her friends all laughed and they became a threesome - leaving me still sitting alone.

Looking back, it seems so trivial but it was the first time I realized that nobody liked me and it was a stigma that I carried throughout middle school until I changed schools for high school. But this idea of nobody liking me has been something that I've been fighting against my whole life. Even now when people want to be my friends - I'm always suspicious as if they have some ulterior motive. I wish that what some mean girls had said so many years ago didn't still affect me.