Member-only story
Everyday Is A Constant Battle Of Keeping Hate Out Of My Heart
The influence of learned beliefs and non-first-person experiences
My best friend in the seminary was a popular kid called Inno. He was my best friend but I was obviously not his best friend.
The reason I liked him so much was that he made me fall in love with my insecurities — particularly my height.
At one time, I had been the tallest kid in a school of about 1500 and I didn’t like that sort of recognition and name-calling.
I had even devised ways of bending my upper back and dropping my neck a little when walking so I would appear shorter. When standing, I would relax one of the legs at the knee section which kind of gave me comfort but all this was an attempt to appear shorter.
When I met Inno, he was almost my height although slightly shorter and he wore it with pride. It was the first time I had met someone who was proud of being tall. Not only that, he would even make efforts to appear taller.
In no world were we supposed to be friends. He was a popular and confident kid whereas I was shy and awkward. But basketball brought us together for in it we both found an escape.
