Simpleton Senior Year
Poverty in the years that you attend school can destroy potential. I lost the respect of my "friends" senior year of high school because I was homeless with no money, no family to help and I couldn't fight back against disrespect or ridicule or I would have to live on the streets at 17. This happened to me when I was living with the Simpleton's. My so called friend was constantly putting me down so I stopped talking to him or trying to hang and the result was his mom giving me two options, either take the abuse or go be homeless.
I didn't have a car and no kids in my neighborhood meant I spent the entire summer vacation every year alone. 3 months of no contact with my peers or family just alone in my room. Cathy made the comment that "You're not a prisoner or in prison," but that is how I was raised. stay in isolation and don't speak, that way you aren't hurt by people and family.
Anyways Carleton would say things like "why are you sitting at the table like a fucking retard?" and what am I supposed to say back, he is the son of the woman that is giving me housing. I hated this guy all he did senior year was make fun of me. I was going through hell, I had been through trauma, and he chose to nitpick at my habits and the way I was raised and just belittled me every single day. Another time was when we went over to Damien's grandparents' home where they wanted to watch a tv show I had seen 12 times and I didn't want to watch it again because I had to study 7 hours a day to keep up with AP classes. In my response to wanting to just go back to the Simpletons because I needed to study instead, Carleton mocked me openly and this was the one and only time I called him out on it. When we were leaving I was walking ahead of him and I told him straight up "you need to stop disrespecting me." To which he responded with a chuckling laugh and made some kind of comment along the lines of "no I'm not, ha ha ha." Thing is, if someone tells you that you have been being mean to them, you should take it at their word and then analyze your behavior to see it from their perspective. Instead he gawked at my words and just made me feel worthless.