EJ Hardwick's Short Story

“Is there anyone like me, one that understands the untold struggles, one that you shall see when you reach the other side.” It was winter’s end and the waning frost made way for a sweet breeze of spring. The year was 2010-something and it was nearing the end of elementary school and the fifth grade. A young EJ Hardwick was attending the short lived Country Lane 4th and 5th Grade Center or CL45. Something occurred at CL45 that would seem to indicate where this young inbetweener life was going. He was going deeper into himself and grew quieter. Some would say anti-social even socially anxious. The year was a whirlwind, the two years he had been at CL45 could be described as a whirlwind. Having his early years in a questionable part of Tulsa
Up to this point life was grand, a loving family, friends galore, people would say hello even if they didn’t know him personally. But, as a witness to the storm that is life he had a realization that he was not of the common mold. A mind that has intellect but wanted to use only when he felt the subject suited him. A body that was considered below par. A boy turning into a man who was beginning to discuss philosophy, religion, economics, and politics with those older and wiser. Yet, someone who was described as young at heart who joked and was never actually serious. A apparent contradiction of the mind, an old soul, yet young at heart. In the fourth grade his definition of friendship changed. A boy who was always the optimist, the dreamer now faced with the revelations with growing up in an uncertain world with other people. He told his mother he had no friends but when she inquired to the teacher she said otherwise. He thought however that friendship was a object not easily achieved. Then, in the fifth grade his best friend made the deepest betrayal. To climb the social ladder of young popularity he sold out his supposed friend to make it with kids thought cooler. Even when the apologies rolled in, it was too late, a friendship
Years later I look back and see that as an over exaggeration and what happened next almost cowardly. EJ enrolled in an online K-12 school. The sixth grade was easy, done with school by noon, done with all the chores by three, then freetime. But, things were uneasy as it is for a restless mind. However, this feeling of uneasiness was different. In Elementary school as much as I like to talk so did I like to be quiet another contradiction of extrovert tendencies and introvert tendencies. In reality I always leaned towards introvert but it was more acceptable to young society to be an extrovert. At CL45 something that had always been in the back of his mind came to the forefront and even after CL45 decided to stay. Very low self-esteem that didn’t help when he felt depressed which was somewhat frequent. His parents felt he wasn't getting enough social interaction which in retrospect was true. So, they made him start going to youth group at Heritage UMC which I still frequent to this day. His first time there he spoke less than ten words. His middle school career was online and in eighth grade he was apart of a BA pilot program that I believe is now defunct. Those days were not well for him, he never knew those so young could have thoughts is suicide yet he himself had those thoughts. Some