Disclaimer: I was only watching MTV because I couldn’t sleep and there was nothing else that seemed mind-numbing enough to help me wind down…

It was a rerun of The Real World and this episode was aparently MJ’s birthday and the girl (don’t remember her name…um the one’s that has been trying to get him in the sack since the show started) made him breakfast in bed because of some traumatic birthday event he encountered when he was younger.

For some odd reason, it reminded me of my traumatic event when I was in middle school. I had just moved to Florida and my 12th birthday came and went without so much as a card from my family. Apparently, they had other things on their minds. So when it was a few weeks before my 13th birthday, I started getting a little antsy.

I don’t remember how this nervous breakdown came about, it had to be something major that set me off because I generally let stuff build up. But I remember losing it in school one day. I totally unleashed my pissiness and anger upon my friends explaining how I was ripped from my “true home” and brought to this God foresaken hell pit and had to leave all my friends and nobody cared about me anymore and that I was pretty much being swept under the rug in my family.

My 13th birthday rolled around and sure ’nuff, my daddy didn’t wish me a happy birthday in the morning on my way to school and no one called me. I arrived at school and just continued throughout the day as if nothing was special and then somewhere towards the end of my day, my friends said they had something for me. They gave me a brown teddy bear and wished me a happy birthday - said they were sorry my life sucked and hoped it got better (I’m paraphrasing) and I cried (don’t fault me for it, I might be a slight tomboy, but I am still a girl). I felt horribly bad for going off on my friends like that and they still went out of their way to chip in to get me a gift. That is one of the happiest childhood memories I have since I’ve been in FL.

I still have the teddy bear…