The High School Blues

Daily writing prompt

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

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In the mid 1970s, my family moved from the metro Detroit area to up north Michigan where it was a huge change. Throughout high school, I felt out of place.

Living in the Downriver Detroit area, I knew who my friends were and who I could count on. Even though, I was teased severely by some because of my braces and glasses. My moving away parties, I invited those who treated me good and bad to leave on good terms.

Being my original self, I have found myself being criticized for being different although my siblings did well making friends in our new hometown. Was teased and mocked for being who I am constantly although I was a cheerleader, wrote most of the year book and newspaper plus missed being on the winter homecoming court by a few votes plus being asked to be on a summer festival court as a possibility. Life was extremely difficult when I felt alone and out of place during high school.

To date, thanks to technology, a few male classmates have reached out to me out of curiosity. A former classmate who’s a lifetime member of the community that I left who didn’t understand why I hadn’t attended class reunions and haven’t been back. He didn’t understand how anyone could feel like I do about the area.He got angry with me how someone could feel about the area but it was more about my classmates. Another one who recently contacted me knows people who live outside of the town and has traveled who understands how I feel to some degree.

Since graduation, I visited the area twice a year for Christmas and a summer festival when my parents were living but I haven’t been back since I moved to Texas. It has been a feeling of freedom of not having to travel where I feel out of place and not belonging.

Yours Truly,

Leslie Elizabeth David.