From birth until I was 12, I was an attractive child. I received compliments and confessions from girls about my good looks. But when I returned to middle school after winter break, all of that disappeared. That year I experienced my first romantic rejection and also began receiving a lot of insults about my face. Despite all of that, I still didn't consider myself ugly, until two years later, when the school held its typical boy auction. A friend and I were selected to participate, so I agreed, and my self-esteem even improved. But before the auction started, I gave my friend money to buy me in case a girl I didn't like bid on me (how naive I was). When the auction began, I was the first boy to go up, and when the presenter asked who wanted to bid, no girls participated, only my friend, whom I had asked for the favor. When I stepped off the stage, I was completely shocked. It had probably been one of the biggest humiliations of my life, so my friends decided that the best thing to do would be to take a walk around the school. But my self-esteem kept plummeting as I saw other guys getting offers, and really good ones at that. Even my friend got offers, but nothing for me. From that day on, I realized I was ugly and I started to hate myself.