A Freak

  By the time I was in the sixth grade, I was 6 foot tall and weighed 170 pounds. I felt like a freak because I was so much taller than anyone that I went to school with and my curly hair didn't help things either and everyone treated me differently, or at least that was my perception. I have thought a lot about that over the years and I have very good memories of instances that would prove that. I remember watching a movie called Frankenstein at a relatively young age

I did not understand the concept of man creating man, nor did I care. What I saw was a human being that was different than everyone else. I felt empathy with the monster as the towns people tried to kill him.
  Things changed for me in junior high school, I gained some respect and I gave respect back to everyone. Elementary school was a steady fight for me, I was either being picked on or protecting myself from one kind or another of prejudice against either my curly hair or my size. I don't necessarily have those fond memories of Charjean as I did Airways. When the coaches cut my sideburns, it was as if it had all started, all over again, because I was different. I was being treated differently, but I hold no grudges, everyone did what they thought was right at the time. I just wish that so many of my detractors had walked a mile in my shoes. Just because someone is different or thinks differently than you do is no reason to label them as a freak. Why I even embraced the connotation of freak when I became a Christian and the term Jesus freak was being bandied around and I thought it fit me because I both felt invigorated as a Christian and a freak as a person, it helped me to come to terms with how I felt about myself.

It's hard to put into words the feelings that I had as a young child and then into adolescence at Airways everything started to come together and I no longer felt freakish as a matter of fact I almost felt as if people like to me and wanted me to be their friend. We all have our own cross to bear, as we grew up and I know that a lot of you felt in your own way the same as I did. The changes in how we became who we were at Airways had hit a positive note for me and that's why I called my three years at Airways. The most magical time of my life, because I learned to like me and I thought a few of you did to