A Bit Weary
When I was in junior high school there was this kid who could easily be referred to as an annoyance. He was the same age as me and I saw him at school often. He didn’t live too far from me so I saw him outside of school occasionally. The thing about him was that he often behaved in a way that provoked others. The combination of terms that would accurately describe him would be “annoying smart aleck / pain in the neck”. The thing is that he was a small guy, both in stature and in body frame. He probably couldn’t have protected himself physically against someone younger than himself. I could have easily beaten this kid into submission at any time, but I never did. I always knew that his behavior was a source of compensation for his physique and for issues that he was having at home. I chose to tolerate his behavior and withhold any retaliation. I wish now that I possessed the ability then to help him with counselling, but I was just a kid myself back then and I didn’t have the...