The fly buzzed around his head. In an attempt to abate the nuisance, he swatted it with his father’s copy of the newspaper; however, the fly continued to annoy him. Its resilience astonished him. He opened the window, allowing the fly to return outside. He wished he could spend the day outside, not trapped inside school. As he waited for his father to finish his coffee and take him to school, the young boy asked his mother, “Do you think other middle schoolers will tease me?” It was a question that is invariably asked on the first day of school. However, the young boy knew that he indeed did deviate from the normal.
In kindergarten, while all the other children were still learning to read, the young boy began reading the Harry Potter series; in first grade, while all the other children learned addition and subtraction, he mastered multiplication and division. The young boy knew he was different. However, his mother told him, “The other children won’t torment you because you are not different. You are just like every other student in that school.” She knew that it was exactly what her son wanted to hear. However, the thought of her son’s possible humiliation still lingered at the back of her mind.
As his father finished his coffee, the young boy stared outside, contemplating whether he should leave or stay. Coming to the realization that he would be late for school, he reluctantly stepped outside, overcoming the wave of trepidation that accompanies the first day of school.
That day at school, the young boy sat alone at lunch, reading, engrossed in the contents of his book. The other children noticed this and their immediate reaction was that it was abnormal. Obviously, the boy was a geek, who only liked to read. They hated reading. Because of this difference, they felt compelled to do what they thought should be done: alienate the boy because of this difference. They did not attempt to understand this boy whom they thought incomprehensible, instead they ostracized him, they left him completely alone. When the boy tried to talk to them, they spat hateful words at him like “Geek!”, told him that he was not like them, that he was different, and because of this difference, he was inferior.
After school that day, the boy locked his bedroom door and read,; he attempted to forget his horrible day at school. Unfortunately, his attempts to escape the memories of the day were unsuccessful. Tears streaming down his face, the boy looked up at the ceiling, feeling sorry for himself. The fly had returned and it was buzzing around his room. Textbook in hand, the boy swatted the fly - it continued buzzing around his head. With a sigh of exasperation, the boy gave up and the fly continued to buzz around the room. The boy thought and thought. He desperately attempted to find an explanation for his peers’ inexplicable ferocity towards him. The fly buzzed around the boy’s head. The boy picked up his textbook again and held it above his head.
However, he was hesitant, he suddenly understood the sadly misunderstood fly. All the fly wanted was to live, to survive this world full of dangers; just like the boy wanted to survive his difficult journey through middle school. The boy thought, “Maybe that’s how they feel too.” The boy had the sudden realization that maybe, just maybe, his tormentors were just like him, they had the same fears and the same desires. However, due to their ignorance and recalcitrance, they managed not to see it. Yet, he could. He realized that his peers, like him, wanted only to survive middle school, and all of the atrocities that accompanied it. He put the book back on the table and opened the window. He watched it fly outside until it eventually, disappeared; free and alone, attempting to survive a world of many dangers. And the boy hoped it did.