A significant moment in time: Lunch Table

My first essay of college was to pick a specific moment in your life, a tiny, tiny moment and see how it changed who you are and how it affected you. So this is the essay. Some names will be left out.


<sub>Sam "Dia' ________
_________
September 11 2012

The Significance of a Lunch Table
My life was changed in a split second at a lunch table in sixth grade.
When I was younger, around the age where puberty hits and hormones make you grow all sorts of ways, I was pretty much ostracized from my peers. I liked to read, I still had my mom dressing me, and I liked Japanese culture. The middle school I went to had a lot of cliques, and if you weren't on of them, you were a 'loser.'
I had joined band that year, playing the flute, and I found some girls who liked the Japanese culture like myself. Unfortunately, I was not very outgoing. I kept to myself, listening to whatever the latest Japanese pop song was and reading my books. I drew and wrote elaborate stories. I was very much a recluse.
There was a group of girls, who were part of the 'popular' crowd, and they liked to pick on me. When they got bored with one thing about me, they would quickly find another. Their favorites were my last name or my eyes. Growing up in a very religious city where there was literally a church within a 100 yard radius from you, having a red pigmented birthmark in your eye was 'demonic' in the eyes of other kids. Many boys would like to pull my hair, it was long and bleached, and always in a ponytail. I was the easy target; I never stuck up for myself.
I was at lunch on one of the many rainy days the Midewest US gets in winter, when my only guy friend, ____, sat down beside me. We had been a 'couple' for about 2 months. He was the only boy I liked, and he liked me back, and we decided to be 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend.' He sat beside me, and a girl sat next to him, near the popular girls at the end of the table. My friends and I were discussing the latest episode of an anime (Japanese cartoon) called Naruto, and how the plot twist was crazy (someone actually died).
Now, these girls at the end of the table were no strangers to me, one was the neighbor across the street from me (her name was Sara). They also picked on me for my interests and clothes. Today, they were feeling pretty gutsy, since they never picked on me around my friends. Well, Sara got up from her seat and walked over to our side of the table.
"Hey, Sam. Nice tights, did your mom pick them out?" She actually sneered at me. Now, ____ wasn't having any of this, but he was in a mild state of shock, not seeing anyone pick on me before.
Sara would go on to say several things, including: "At least I am not a Japanese obsessed freak. I mean, it's not like you will ever get to go or anything, since you can't even afford to shop at Hollister."
____ finally said something. "At least Sam is an actual girl, why do you dray your eyebrows on? And you look like a clown with all that makeup."
Sara was shocked and she walked away. The girls left except the girl next to ____.  She turned to us and asked, "Does that always happen?"
I ignored her, assuming she'd pick on me. She stared at me and she said after five minutes, "My name is Kim Armstrong! So what is this 'anamai' and 'mainga' you were talking about? It sounds interesting!"
Kim slowly phased her way into our tight group of band kids, she was even in our band class 5th hour. Which was odd we never noticed her before, she was what every popular girl looked like, tall with brown hair and brown eyes. Kim began to get closer to me than the other girls, and she introduced me to a few other people, her friends.
I actually went to sleepovers, when my mother would allow it, more. And I had friends. Some of the 'popular' kids began to take a slight notice in me, I was becoming more a an outgoing girl. My grades rose a bit from the once pitiful low. I carried myself with a straight back and had a bounce in my step.
Towards the end of the year, I actually had lost my first boyfriend. ____ had admitted to almost killing himself and that he had an eating disorder; he was anorexic. I remember calling his mom crying about how he told me. He was sent to a psych ward called 'Shadow Mountain.' This is when I had my first bouts with depression. Kim would make sure that I ate. She helped me with homework and she would make excuses for me when I wasn't in class, being in the counselor's office. I had turned back into the recluse, but Kim refused to let that happen again. So she promised that if I ever needed her, she would run to my house as fast as possible, no matter what time of night. She promised that as long as I kept my head up and didn't turn back into the sad weak girl that she first met, she would be there.
At the very end of the year, there was a sleepover with _____ and _____, and some other girls would be there. It was the first sleepover that I had attended in a little over 3 months. Kim came over the day of after school, which was our last day. She packed my stuff up and her mom drove us with another girl, ____ , to the party. When we got there, Kim stopped me on the front porch and asked me if I was okay. I nodded. She hugged me and said, "Good. We're friends, we are here for each other, right?" With that I turned to her, and I remember what I said to this day, "Kimmi, we are more than friends, we are best friends."
After almost 8 years, Kim and I have been through heartbreak, moving away from each other (though more me than her), and having to deal with whatever life had thrown at us. We have gotten over mountains, and sometimes we struggled with the mole hills. Life has thrown some fast balls, but Kim is a catcher, so she knows how to handle it a bit more than I do. We had our share of fights, but in the end it worked out for the good. I remember one day at the lunch table, I had introduced Kim to a song, and we looked up the lyric translations when we got to her house. It was a Japanese song entitled "A Little Pain," by Olivia Lufkin. The one part that stuck out to me, "I'm here waiting for you/Even if I'm lost alone, blown upon the wind/I'm here waiting for you/Gazing up at the sky/My heart will always open my hands to protect you/ Until you come back/ No need to cry." These words sum up everything I have been through with her. She helped me when I was down. She made sure I was okay. Kim protected me from myself. She helped me become less of a recluse, helped me accept myself and made everything okay.
It's funny how a small moment in time, a split second, can change a life. Mine was changed at a lunch table.</sub>