Continuing with the feel-good themes

I've found myself being forced to re-assess my perception of early teenaged years, or (as I said at Whining Wednesday) my "Inner Tortured Grade 8 Student." I know that I've already told you folks about some of my problems in elementary school. In short, I was teased badly and I cried a lot; I was the least popular kid in my grade. I've managed to forgive a lot through the years, especially as I realised the troubled lives that my tormenters had. But there still was some hurt there, especially with the thought that no one in my grade liked me, and that maybe they still didn't like me. Maybe they still saw me as that kid, and maybe I sometimes still saw myself in that way.

And then a girl contacted me over Facebook. Introduced herself, hoping that I remembered her. Of course I remembered her. She and I were good friends from the very little grades, and she was nice to me when a lot of the other kids were mean. We stayed friendly through high school. And now she's been trying to track me down for a while, because it made her sad that she lost track of me after grad. She told me that she was talking with some other people from our elementary school, speculating on whether they'd go to next year's reunion, and she said that the only reason she'd go is to see if she could get in contact with me, because I'd always been nice to her!

Huh. Someone liked me and thought I was nice.

Talking with her has reminded me of others who were my friends during those years. I'm having happy memories of a time that I've only associated with unhappiness. I can't begin to say how good that is for my emotional health.