Where to start my story? What is my story? These questions run through my head often. It's hard to box me up into a few things. A part of my story that impacted me greatly as a young girl, was being endlessly teased for being fat. Yes, I said fat. I hate that word. Anybody else? In today's world, I would be considered an average sized preteen girl, but today's childhood obesity rate is another topic for another day. There are two VERY defining moments in my past that hurt and dug deep into me at the time. I'll share one with you today. These moments shaped who I am today. No regrets. In fact, I'm pretty sure these moments are what gives me the drive to be as fit and healthy as I can be, why I alway encourage people to go on this health journey for themselves, and why I don't judge people for where they are with their health in life.
Moment one that is etched into my brain. In order to really understand this, let me give you a little background on where I grew up. I am a small-town midwestern girl, raised in a farming community. Everybody knew everybody (still does) and I went from Kindergarden through high school with the same group of kids. We didn't lock our doors and we left the keys in the ignition.
A typical summer job for kids was corn detasseling (Google it). All the kids would load up on a bus and head out to the field for the day of work. We had to bring our lunches. There were no restaurants or a deli or even pizza delivery anywhere near the fields. It was your lunch box or nothing. Anyways, we left our lunch boxes on the bus until it was lunch time. Now, the kids weren't supposed to go onto the bus at all, but there were kids who never thought rules applied to them. A couple of them thought it would be super hilarious to sneak onto the bus and steal my lunch.
When I went to eat lunch that day, I didn't have any. I was upset. I went over to the group of kids that my older sister was sitting with so that I could tell her and hope she had something to share. She was sitting with the cool kids. She was popular. I was not. Not, yet anyways. I hadn't embraced ME yet...again, another story for another day (Side note, don't compare yourself to others and try to be like them. Just be you. That is when happiness starts and true friends are found). Moving along with my story, I said to my sister, somebody ate all my food. The kids (who were supposedly family friends - smh) she was sitting with started laughing and one of the boys said, "I ate it. It's not like you need it anyways. I'm doing you a favor." This memory is so vivid that I can quote those words from him. I turned around and walked back to where I was sitting. I tried holding back tears because I didn't want them to see they got to me. I wanted to be strong.
I get emotional just thinking about this story. I never have went back to that person to tell him how he made me feel that day and how it has affected me throughout my life, including being a key moment shifting my relationship with food south (another story for another day). Part of me wants to call him a jerk and tell him to look at me now, a-hole. And, another part of me wants to thank him for giving me a moment that has helped shape my drive, focus, dedication and desire for my own health and the same passion to help others be healthy too. Maybe one day, I'll share with him both.