Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - 8
Back to School
Meeting the bully challenge.
BY MOLLY DUGGER BRENNAN | ART BY LINDSEY RICHARDS BARNES
I
8 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
always both loved and hated going back to school.
Getting new school supplies was magical. Everything
was fresh, colorful and brimming with potential.
I don't think I have ever not delighted in
office and school supplies.
My mama felt the same way about fabric stores and
could spend hours searching the bolts for just the right
shade of turquoise green to complement her freckled
skin. My sister gets lost for days in craft stores, being
the artsy one in the family. I have found her squatting
in the aisle, trying to decide between burnt sienna and
raw umber paints for over 15 minutes. My weaknesses
are book stores and office supply stores. Time doesn't
exist in these stores for me and hours and my money
evaporate like magic.
We would also get new clothes and shoes for the
new school year. It was not easy to get a proper fit when
you're not done growing and you spent your entire summer
walking barefoot on gravel roads. You almost don't
need shoes, when you've built up soles of steel like I had.
Same thing happened with clothes. I had spent all summer
in seersucker shorts and cotton tee shirts and now
plaid and wool was in my dresser.
New classes, new teachers, new clothes, new books,
new friends, it was all just so exciting. I would sail
through the first month of school still on my high of
fresh potential. Maybe even make it to my first report
card of the year before the anxiety would set in. I had
performance anxiety because I so wanted to make good
grades, I had social anxiety because I'm an introvert and
being around a lot of people all day long is exhausting to
me, and I had a normal pre-adolescent dollop of anxiety
about my looks, smells and weight.
Adding to this was a brand new school bully. This
one was different, special. Calvin had hemophilia, a disease
that makes it near impossible for your blood to clot
properly. Royalty has often suffered from hemophilia because
of their tendency to inbreed to maintain a royal
blood line. The rest of us are safe because of our blood
line diversity. There's a lesson right there.
So for whatever reason other than royalty, Calvin had
hemophilia. Everyone in the school was briefed that no
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Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024
Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - 3
Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - 4
Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - 5
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Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country Sept/Oct 2024 - Cover4
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