September 26, 1997

Hi Miss!

When are we going to get book review forms? I got a lot of books to fill in.

I wish we could do some of journal work in class. It’s hard to find time elsewhere.

I’m having a hard time at school. Everybody seems to hate me and I don’t know why. Almost everywhere I turn I am put down. I’m tired of trying to stay up. I don’t want to fight anymore. I need help.

 

No.

I will not do down. I will not be put down. If I go down and be sucked into believing I am worthless, no one will remember who I was. I am a rock and no one will move me. No one will shatter me. I am a fort and no one will enter me. I refuse to surrender!

No one has gone through this school, but I will go through. Like a battering ram through a sheet of paper (or at least plastic). BUT I WILL get through!

Ben,

It’s hard to be different. When I was in Grades 8, 9, and 10, I went to a French school. I got called all sorts of names in Grafe 8 and 9. I think by Grade 10 thye’d grown out of it. I guess though I was luckier. My school was huge– about 1,000 students. I could disappear during recess and lunch if I wanted to. Also, because there were more people, I was able to find my own group of friends to hang out with.

You’re right though– you have to be a rock– on the outside. Don’t react to the comments. Don’t respond to them, not with words or facial expressions. That way these people who tease you can’t get any satisfaction. Isn’t this class better than Sec III? It seems you get along better with some students. Can you follow the positives?

I don’t know what to suggest. I don’t know if there is any solution.

Feel free to vent in your journal. You have to release your anger and frustration toward the turkeys who are too immature to accept you because you are different from them.

Take care, Ben.

Gabrielle