Joe's Story

Sometimes I have a very hard time with my self-esteem. It is very hard to feel good about yourself when people put you down. I wish I were more confident and not care what people say, but when you've been hearing it almost all your life, sometimes you start to believe them.



Ever since I was young, I've been different from everyone else. Not only was I overweight, but I went through puberty prematurely. The thing is, I never thought anything of it. I was a very happy child. I was full of life, love and energy. Then came the first day of school. That is the day that everything changed. All the time I thought I was a normal child, but the other kids soon corrected me on that. I was fat, I was ugly, I was a monster, you get the idea. It didn't take much of that to make me start hating myself. I wasn't hurt because I was fat; I was hurt because of the teasing.



Over the years, my schoolmates started to accept me for who I am instead of what I look like. Unfortunately, the rest of the general public isn't there yet. In fact, at my work the other day, some guy said to me "Wow, you are a big one, how much do you weigh?" I really wanted to tell him enough to kick his ass, but I had to be polite because I was at work. Why do people insist on hurting others to bring themselves up? Maybe they have more of a self-esteem problem than I do. I just need to keep reminding myself that it isn't how others view me that robs me of self esteem, it's how I view myself that robs me of my self esteem. Hopefully I can stop seeing how others see me, and get down to who I really am.




SoshBfly@aol.com