I Will Be Your Friend

So as I said we got to travel.  This meant that I only went home about once a month or so.  This was okay with me, because most of the time at home I felt in the way.  I felt out of place, awkward, unwanted.  I wasn’t treated bad, or harassed or anything like that, I just felt out of place.  When I was at school I was popular. I was looked up to, respected. Not just by students, but by staff too.  I was asked my opinion, I was invited to parties, I was asked to participate in conversations, and other things that make you feel important.  This kind of stuff didn’t happen to me at home.

It was during my first year at school that I started to realize that I had something to offer people.  I wasn’t just being tolerated, I was honestly and truly liked. People really enjoyed being around me.  This made me feel special for the first time in my entire life, and I don’t mean ride the short bus special, I mean really special.

It was during my first year I would meet the man I still consider one of my best friends.  He and I had so much in common that my mother called us her bookends.  We looked alike, talked alike, dressed alike, like the same foods, and it even turned out we liked the same type of girls.  His name was JP, and JP is an african american albino.  What that means is he looks caucasian other then the fact that he has the features of a black man.  The tight curly hair, high cheekbones, large nose, but his skin is white, and his eyes are blue, just like yours truly.

JP and I shared a room most of the time I attended TSB. JP lived in Nashville, which is where TSB was located.  But he stayed in the dorms, even though he could have gone home everyday if he wanted to.  Most of the students that attended TSB lived too far away to go home every day, much like I did in California, so we would take a charter bus home on Fridays, and come back by charter bus on Sundays.

Just like in public school, TSB had its cliques.  I was a member of one of the more popular groups on campus.  JP, Rojon, Chad, Ryan, Caine, Brett, Katie, Candace, Chrystal, & Tonya.  This was my main circle of friends.  We were all very close.  There were others, but these were my main support system.  I knew I could count on any one of these guys to be there for me any time for any reason.  They knew they could count on me too.  We later added people to this circle, Skyy, Tina, Willie, Nick, there were many friends.  I may not remember everything that happened during these times, but I will never forget any of these people for as long as God gives me breath.  These are times I can’t remember but friends I’ll never forget.

So needless to say school was going great for me.  I had good friends, I was an honor student, I had the respect of the staff, and I was doing well in the sports I joined.  I won a couple medals in swimming and I was doing real well in wrestling, and it turned out I could complete well in public speaking.  I continued my duties as manager for the girls track team.  So my first year at TSB was great.  The next year could only get better, right?  Read the next section to find out.

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1. A Small History Lesson	2. Congratulations It’s A Freak
3. The First Five Years	4. It All Goes Up In Flames
5. School Daze	6. Say What?
7. A New Hope	8. Becoming A Sophisticated Redneck
9. A New Beginning – Literally	10. Back Into the Fray
11. They Like Me, They Really Like Me	12. 10011001
13. Let the Music Heal Your Soul	14. Taking My Sister to the Prom
15. My First Love, My First Broken Heart	16. From Zero to Hero
17. Livin’ On a Prayer	18. Moving On
19. Going Full Circle	20. The Rockford Files
21. Faith of the Heart	22. Partner, Friend, Lover, Wife
23. Turns Out She Was Right	24. A One-Legged Bear
25. Another Victim of the Game	26. Payin’ Bills with my Skills
27. A New Revell-ation	28. A New Page, A New Day
29. R We There Yet?