I cant remember a point in my life when i haven't loved singing, dancing or being on the stage. When I first started primary school it was compulsory to do ballet but hey we were like 2 (nursery). Anyway all the boys dropped it the second they could (year 1). But there was this one kid who didn't want to quit, who loved dancing , who saw it as his escape from the world . (you guessed it) that kid was me. I carried on my ballet all the way to year 5 and won the school award. Now there was this other kid in the year above me (lets call him Jack) who has won that award 3 times a row and i broke his streak, now me being 9 or 10 years old i just saw this as an amazing thing and couldn't believe my luck (not in a nasty was what-so-ever). But little did i know something so insignificant would become what it did. Jack seemed fine with it at first but eventually he began to become really nasty and spiteful and when i got asked to do workshops for a very famous ballet school he made the whole school HATE me, literally not one person supported me and nobody was my friend now that's pretty hard on a 10 year old. 

HOWEVER. I knew and he knew that primary school didn't last forever and come next year we both went our separate ways WOOOO

Not the end but merely the beginning. I didn't do great in my exams for secondary school and wound up going to a comprehensive (and a rough one at that) . Now thats a pretty big change for a privately schooled boy. I started this school thinking it would be a fresh start and put a smile on my face.

Within a week . A WEEK . I had been singled out by these boys for being the 'posh private school kid with a funny accent' they used to shout things like 'bet your parent are well rich' trying to search me for expensive things or imitating my accent. My parents aren't rich but they sacrificed alot to get me privately schooled so those comments really hit home. 

Me being me i just sucked it up and carried on. 

Then. One assembly i was called up, didn't know for what. But the school had been informed that i did ballet and was starring in a show and they wanted to congratulate me. Upon finishing the announcement and an applause i felt pretty damn good, i thought 'they all took it really well'. But they didn't . AT . ALL

The second after assembly i must've got it off , not just a few boys, but hundreds of students 'BALLET BOY BALLET BOY' , 'go on give us a turn' or simply 'GAYYYYYY'

This went on for 2 years, 2 miserable years of getting thrown in bushes, having things thrown at me, having my stuff took. All because i did something i loved

Well i made a decision, and i gave up ballet and pretty soon the comments stopped, the taunting stopped, i was ok at school. I thought 'great should've done this years ago'

But i wasn't great, i felt defeated, i felt i let myself down, i felt more ashamed than when they teased me about it. 

One day i woke up and i literally said ENOUGH and that was it, the turning point

I applied for a performing arts college to do musical theatre with little hope i would get in because of my absence of dance for a year. But on the 3rd of February when i opened that letter i knew it would all get better, i knew this would TRULY be a new beginning for me and

IVE
NEVER
LOOKED
BACK

Anyway (finally a conclusion) the point of all this is that you ARE different and there is a reason, you just have to stay strong and not give up like i did. BUT if you feel as if you have given up then stop feeling sorry for yourself and do something about it, not for anyone else. FOR YOU.

SO go find that reason, and don't let any amount of BULLIES (hate the word) get you down, because if you keep working then who's going to be laughing in the end

I AM DiFfErEnT AND I LOVE IT  

                                      - Bobby :)