Seeing through the Specs
I've worn specs since about age 10, and it led to a couple of interesting situations in school, since that was what bullies focused on. Sometimes these bullies were much smaller than me, and I found it frankly confusing. I was tall enough to be accused of bullying myself, on one occasion, when I wasn't; it was just a discussion, probably about girls, that had become heated. (I was one of those "new men" before I was a "man", that's all I'll say on that!)

In the last case I had, it was the final year at school, I was about 17, and I was slow to recognise that a couple of guys were bullies. It came to a head as a History class was starting. One of the guys slammed his elbow in to my ribs, and before I knew it, I had broken his nose. He ran out, blood everywhere, and his friend said something like "we'll get you", though nothing came of it.

The funniest side to this story was that it all happened in front of the teacher: this was when I was living in South Africa, and the History teacher was this gruff old Afrikaner who would have been at home as a General in the Second Boer War. (How do I know there were two Boer Wars? It was a History class, silly.) He just looked at me after I sat down, and said nothing: he had seen all he needed to.
( bnt what, me worry?, Wed 13 May 2009, 14:30, Reply)