As my first ever year of secondary school got under way, I was eager to assimilate. Placed in the higher sets in sciences and mathematics I never quite fitted in. The junior school I had transferred from had hardly been academic, and so I'd never been exposed to many 'smarter' kids than me. Immediately I dismissed the "geeks" and "nerds" and worked to be accepted by aggressive types; the ones that wouldn't face bullying.
A few months before this I had transferred over from a local Cubs group to a Scouts group in the area, itself made up of many of the new "geeks" and "nerds" that I wished to ignore. Needless to say, I was hated by them. Friday nights would entail a few hours of standing around and pretending to be productive - not a single person would talk to me.
During my first few months, my academic progress had fallen from a cliff. I probably couldn't handle the fact I was no longer the "smart kid." I was kicked out of many lessons, handed seven detentions (I was such a rebel) and my grades were plateauing around the lowest end of the year. This was about to change, however.
At the start of the year I had begun playing a game called Runescape. I was a low-level, who quit for three weeks after dying and losing a tinderbox - I hadn't heard of general stores. One Friday evening, a drab, overcast night, I tagged along with a group of the "geeks" and "nerds" to sit around a bonfire. One of them made a joke about firemaking; I clicked, and realised that I wasn't the only one in the year that adventured in Gielinor. It turned out that almost all of the group had accounts, some of them were even members! This spurred on my first ever involvement in a real conversation with them, I was handed a couple of names to add and come the next day I was conversing back and forth in cyan blue.
It was unconventional and weird, but this was how I met my real friends.
14-Feb-2013 13:00:40
