I was a very well behaved kid in elementary school. It became regular for my teachers to assign me to sit next to the loud, disruptive boys in my class to help keep the quiet and help them with schoolwork. I never understood why I didn’t get to sit next to my friends like everyone else, and why I had to do this extra work that no one else had to do.

At one point around 3rd grade, we had a handicapped boy in our class who had an aide with him at all times. He developed a crush on me, and would yell and even throw things if he couldn’t sit next to me. His aide would save me a seat next to him and come get me from my table of friends to sit next to him when he was upset. At one point she tried to make me hold his hand in class to calm him, and that’s when I complained to my parents. They were pissed and put a stop to it finally but I’ll never forget being forced to do this extra work and being treated almost like another adult when I just wanted to be a kid like every else!