I have lived my entire life with this injury and there have been many ups and downs with it. I wasn’t that affected in kindergarten. When I went, I felt more accepted by everyone who was there.
My problems started in the early days of grade 1. I got older and started to develop. The hospital wanted to perform several operations on me that automatically made me the “special one” in class.
I remember only fractions of my time from 1-4 class at school, but I remember enough to know it was not a good experience. I lived in a small place. Out in the countryside. Everyone knows everyone and people automatically become a little more weird out there. Now, I should not drag everyone under the same comb, but it is in such small places that everyone who is different will get the weird look or be bullied. Unfortunately, I was exposed to both.
The school I attended was a relatively large school. It was 1-7 class that they had gathered over a larger geographical area. Could not be compared to a primary school in Bergen, but it was just right.
I was not treated very well by the school management and my parents had to go to the newspaper to get a proper rehabilitation plan for me at school. The school promised us change and that things would be better, but everything was pretty much done half-way. Their solution was to take me out of class, have an assistant-teacher who followed me down to the gym and then climb a bit in a rib wall. This was their view of training. It actually went so far that the county doctor got involved. If you want to read the case, as well as see a cute picture of me when I was a kid, the case is still available online here (Norwegian article):
https://www.bt.no/nyheter/lokalt/i/7pOW8/foedselsskadde-martin-6 -was-shuttlecock-in-municipality
I had an operation some time between 1-4 class. Can’t remember the year right here and now, but after this surgery, I had to plaster my arm outwards. A bit like you see in the movies with a support beam that goes from the arm down to the stomach. I was bullied for this and my arm looked so weird. I’ve always been very conflicted, so I’ve never wanted to get back at anyone or solved stuff with violence. So I accepted most of the stuff that was thrown at me. Unlike now … it would not play out the same way today. One day it went so far that I was thrown to the ground by the boy who bullied me. The arm was still plastered and I was healing after surgery. This happened in recess. Instead of removing the bully, they removed me. The school felt that I should be “protected” by locking me in a classroom during recess. This should make sure that I was not harmed by anyone else when I had a plastered arm.
So there I sat, alone in a classroom during the break, waiting for friends and classmates to come in again from the recess. Everything they did at that school was pretty much shit.
Which made my parents take me out of that school and decided I should go to a school that was closer to my Dad instead. Far away from the madness. I made new friends, confidence increased, grades increased and I felt much better. Their solution to bullying problems was not to lock anyone in a classroom. It was to go after the bully. At least that’s how I felt it when I went to school there, but it may well be that someone has a different view.
If you are different, the system will work against you whether you want it to or not. It may not happen right away, but it will happen sometime in the future. Once the ball has started to roll, it comes after you and bites you in the ass. My solution was to dismiss things. To not let things bother me. This is of course very difficult, but to try to bring out the positive in the negative can make the difference. An example is: I fell down a flight of stairs on the last day, but damn it went fast. Positive: Went down the stairs fast 🙂
Have a nice evening!
Martin’s Liv 