Strong Allies

Little kids are always calling each other "weird". This is hilarious because little kids are some of the weirdest people on the planet. I mean, you"re still kind of a little kid, Kim, but you"re getting there. I remember when you were so little we basically had to tell you to wear shoes and sleep in a bed. But that"s kind of the point I guess. If you"re a toddler, you spend your entire day getting told by adults that you have to do things the normal way, so maybe you think if you start telling other kids to be normal you become an adult. Our nomadic childhood being what it was, I guess you and I got a lot of practice being weird. Now that you"re starting fifth grade, you"re probably going to start hearing, from Mom or Dad or somebody, that everyone is weird and no one is normal. I mean, look at Mom, she"s super weird and she makes millions of dollars off of it. But it"s only sort of true that everyone"s weird. There is a big, big difference between a kid who is weird because he can"t walk, a kid who is weird because he can throw a hundred mile an hour fastball, and a kid who is weird because he likes to eat peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches, no matter how much the peanut butter and ketchup kids want to pretend we"re all part of some big weird born-this-way brotherhood. Weirdness is not equal or fair. If normal is the sun, nobody actually lives on the sun, but some kids are Mercury and some are Pluto. We all know how things ended for Pluto. Being weird in the same way as somebody else can help a kid make friends, but it can also stop a kid from making friends. People will tell this kid it"s not his fault, even when it"s totally his fault. Sometimes his weirdness is that he interrupts too much or doesn"t bathe. Other times the weirdness is out of his control, like a speech impediment, or a parent in prison. Life isn"t fair, is it? At St. Anne"s, for the first time in my life, I got to make friends and keep them. I liked it so much, I decided to help others do the same. I"ve helped over twenty kids find friends. But this weekend, I"m graduating eighth grade, and soon I"ll be moving on to St. Francis, where I plan to start this whole operation over again on a much bigger scale. That"s why I"m writing this friend matching manual, not just for you, Kim (although I think you"ll be great!) but hopefully for years of students to come. Please keep St. Anne"s a happy, welcoming place, future friend matchers. This is my legacy to you, and hopefully some day the world.