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Due to my lack of education, I was hardly what you would call a fashionable person. I wore stretchy pants and crew neck t-shirts, and glasses. Not even flattering ones. I didn't know how to stay healthy, so I ate a lot. I got bored easily. Eating was my way of passing the time. I would eat constantly. Mostly chips, fast food, and anything greasy or sweet that I could get my hands on. As a result, I was fat. I hardly ever showered, maybe once a week, and I would wear the same clothes until I did shower. I smelled terrible I'm sure.

I had no friends growing up, save one named Heather. The only people I ever associated with were the ones that went to my church. So mostly adults. I was super religious, to the point that I was shoving the Bible into people's faces and telling them they had to read it or they would go to Hell. I was a socially awkward child.

I used to be bossy. I would tell people what to do, where to go, and how to play a game. If things didn't go my way, I'd throw a fit and storm off to my room. I tried taking on my mother's roll and tried keeping my siblings in line. I only managed to annoy them completely.

Heather was home-schooled like I was. Just as awkward and bossy too. We loved each other to death, but it just never worked when two people who were pretty much the same tried playing games together. We ended up in a lot of fights.

My sister was a tom-boy, so she had a lot of guy friends. I was an incredible flirt, and a hopeless romantic. I wanted those boys my sister had. I would get jealous of her easily. Every time I liked a boy, he usually liked my sister more. I would fly off the handle and yell at her, "You always steal my boyfriends!"

Around the time I was 11, my parents started teaching small classes to me and my sister and a few other home-schooled children. The kids were always older than me by a couple years. I was usually "The fat kid who talks to everyone" in those classes. People developed a kind of grin-and-bear-it attitude around me. I stuck out like a sore thumb. This unhealthy, binge eating, fat child in a group of athletic boys and girls who knew how to stay healthy.

But that's the way it goes...