Running with the Pack

When it comes to most animals they like sticking together or what I call riding with the pack. The thing about this is that there are ones that left behind, injured, and in many cases killed.

You take the Mountain Rams the males fight over the territory to get as many female ones that can have.  In some cases those who lose have their pride hurt at least. The other male rams will get the left over female rams from the one that is now king of the heard.

The reason I bring this up is that in so many ways we do the same thing running with the pack especially when we are children. So often there are kids that are left behind by being hurt by other kids. Today more children are being hurt than ever before. We so much want to be accepted by our peers.

This happens with adults as well where there are some who step on their peers. Some bullies when they are children continue to be as adults. In some cases those who were bullied as children will turn the tables as adults. This is not a good sign happening.

When I was growing up I had to deal with being near the bottom of the chart or what you call the food chain where others kids tried to take advantage of me, or I was just not so popular. This can happen for a number of reasons. It can be your size, looks, or some other thing that makes you different. It is probably the biggest problem not being popular is that you are different than your peers in some fashion. I have heard from others that I grew up that went through similar experience as I; however, often we only see what we are going through then what others are going through.

I did though see some other students that had more difficulty in school then I did. One of the worst times was junior high or what may be called middle school now. We had one student Randy who would carry all his books to class. Randy was very smart but very awkward socially. What happen with Randy some kids would throw things or push him where his books would fly all over the place. Often after Randy would pick up his books they would do it to him again. This would happen to Randy almost every day. I felt bad for Randy though at least they stayed away from me. I finally spoke with Randy giving him advice to only carry one book to class. Randy never took my advice on the manner. In high school kids were more mature or maybe they moved on to someone else because Randy didn’t have the problem again. I haven’t seen or heard from Randy, however, I did hear that he is quite successful which does not surprise me. He left those kids that bothered him behind. It would be so nice to run into him some day.

School years just seemed so long to me. If I could get out of going to school I made every opportunity to do so.  I never told my parents much happened in those days I would say you guys know more than they do.  I have mentioned it before if you are a parent look for the signs in your kids. I believe there are more opportunities today to help kids now. There are mentors that will help. I know I would give advice to any kids what to do.  I believe the best advice is that the school years whether you’re having trouble in any of them especially middle or high school those years are only a short period of time even though they feel like your whole life.

Another advice I have is that it is OK if you do not run with the pack. What you do more than anything is be yourself. This is from someone who tried to deal as much with the pack he could. Instead of being run over by the pack. I am still dealing with looking at the pack from the outside. It is important to be a champion among the wolves.