When I finished 7th grade, I switched schools. Middle school, while rough for everyone, had turned me – already an anxious kid – into a gibbering mess. My parents, seeking any and all means of ameliorating the situation, took me out of the private school I attended. I spent the first week of my eighth [...]

I don’t remember how old I was when my mother told me that in life I would be very lucky if I had more people I could truly call friends than fingers on my right hand. I must have been pretty young, because I remember thinking how wise my mom was. I’d yet to start [...]