we were.

Krissy's first day in 6th grade here in NH was such an eye opening awareness for her.

She's always been a deceptively strong but tiny gal whom you might think was easy to push around. She's not. She has steel muscles from years of competative gymnastics and weights. Even then, she was extremely strong.

So, her first day, she went to lunch in the cafeteria with the rest of the 6th graders. One boy cut her in line. So she immediately grabbed his arm, turning him around to face her.

She lambasted him loudly for cutting the line to ensure that other new classmates got a clue that she wasnt easy pickings and would think twice before clowning her.

Instead of giving her grief, he immediately apologized and explained that he didn't know she was in the pizza line because she wasn't directly behind the boy he got behind. He didn't mean to cut her. He thought she was just considering which lunch line she wanted because kids line up tightly there and she wasn't. They line up loosely at her other school because kids hurt each other or get grabby.

She was flustered and embarrassed by his unexpected apology, but quickly recovered and told him he could stay in front of her. (They eventually wound up being good friends afterwards)

When I picked her up after school, she got into the car and quickly said "Mumzy, I do NOT fit in here. A boy cut me in line and when I yelled at him, he apologized and said he didn't mean to cut me. What am I supposed to do with THAT?" (Not her precise wording, but it is the full gist of it)

I explained to her that these kids were very different from the ones she'd known in elementary school in the city we'd moved from. I told her that she needed to switch lanes back to how things were and just go back to "using her words and not her fists" like we'd taught her as a wee lass. ere in private preschool and at home.

City schools taught her that "using your words" rather than hitting someone was baby stuff and that kids who didn't push back were easy pickings, teased, abused, and left out. She refused to be that kid.

It has stayed with me since then about HOW DIFFERENT those two worlds truly were after seeing her utter bewilderment that a boy apologized to her and didn't lash out or yell at her. That's normal life to me, being decent to people, using my words, and giving folks the benefit of the doubt before getting angry or saying something ugly. It made me very sad to fully grasp just how awful it had been for them before we moved and so grateful that we finally could!

As to your comment about people taking the time to read stories and not just sound bites... I do agree and I usually do read every word of people's stories, long or short, but I also understand that I have the luxury of time and many others don't.