I have a seizure disorder, ADHD and a hearing impairment\u2014all of which made me a prime target for bullies.<\/p>\n
Kids loved to make fun of me. Finally my mom had enough, and enrolled me in a new school, Peaster Independent, Peaster, Texas, in eighth grade.<\/p>\n
That first day at Peaster, I was nervous. Scared. I walked into homeroom and stood in the back. Suddenly two guys walked up. Here it comes<\/em>, I thought.<\/p>\n \u201cHi, my name\u2019s Jon,\u201d one of the boys said. \u201cI\u2019m Tommie,\u201d said the other. Soon we were talking about sports, favorite subjects in school, even girls.<\/p>\n Jon and Tommie stuck by me over the years. They supported me when I joined the prom committee, asked me to be the manager for our high school baseball team, even helped me meet the girl I liked.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can do anything you want,\u201d Jon would say.<\/p>\n He was right. I overcame the odds, graduating from Peaster High in 1998. Now I\u2019m in my last semester of college, pursuing a degree in early childhood education.<\/p>\n I hope to pass the courage my two best friends gave me to kids who have struggles like mine. I want them to know they too can succeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have a seizure disorder, ADHD and a hearing impairment\u2014all of which made me a prime target for bullies. Kids loved to make fun of me. Finally my mom had enough, and enrolled me in a new school, Peaster Independent, Peaster, Texas, in eighth grade. That first day at Peaster, I was nervous. Scared. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[252],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[790],"class_list":["post-22882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finding-life-purpose"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n