When you are 12 years old, life is hard enough. To caught between being a child and being a teenager, you struggle to really who you are. I was in the middle of that struggle when my parents announced we were moving to the city. The move was only few miles away, but to me it was a world away. Our new home was different compared to the new one. I only stayed at home. I never played with other children in the place with the same age of mine.
The move itself wasn't so bad, bu I had a hard time fitting in at school. The other student had all grown up together, and I was the outsider. To make the matters worse, I didn't hide my emotions and was an easy target for bullies. One of the biggest bullies I had to deal with this was Jenny. That wouldn't have been so bad, except Jenny is a girl. I had dealt with boy bullies before. You either faced them or learned to avoid them. But Tracy seemed to be everywhere: in the hall, at lunch, in my classes. She had a way with insults that just chopped you to pieces. I dreaded seeing her anywhere.
Since it seemed I couldn't avoid here, I had to face her, but I didn't know how. A talk I heard at church changed all that. I don't remember what was said. The speaker was talking about dealing with difficult people. He said, "if you can't beat them, try loving them to death." He got laugh out of the congregation, but I thought about it for some time. I finally decided what to do with Jenny. I would "smother her with kindness." I started looking for Jenny the next day. When I saw her, I said, "Jenny, you look nice." She looked shocked and stammered a thank you as we passed in the hall. I kept it up. Every time I saw her, I would pay her compliment before she had a chance to say anything . The insults stopped, and my life gained a little peace.
A few months later, the school year was coming to close. One of the closing activities was a dance in the gym during school hours. I went to it but didn't feel like asking any girls to dance. Frankly, I had never asked as girl before. But the a girl came up to me and asked me to dance. I was shocked to see that it was Jenny. I said yes, and we went out onto the floor. When the song was over, I said, "thank you," and Jenny went on her way. I never did see her again. She moved somewhere else that summer. I hope she fit in at here new school more easily than I had. But i learned that day that my plan had worked. Where I had an enemy, I found a friend.
