I don’t remember the dark years.  I was afraid of everything and everyone.

I have three young kids. Recently we got talking about their teachers and that led to me talking about my teachers growing up. As I told them about each teacher through my elementary years, I could recall names, personalities, and specific memories from those years. It was great fun. Until I got to my middle school years. Things were different. No names came to mind. No positive images or memories. Just a lot of black. Middle school, high school and a few years beyond that were my dark ages. It’s a place I don’t want to ever go back to; a place of loneliness, depression, anxiety and that feeling of total worthlessness. It was a place characterized by fear. I was afraid of everything and everyone.

My jump from elementary school to middle school was like falling…