man

so let me tell you a story

growing up, in school i was quite the cut-up. still am, but that besides the point. anywayz, there was this one kid in nearly all of my classes. he was pretty much your typical bookworm-nearly alwayz had his nose in a book, wore glasses, not popular in the least, extremely shy around females, the difference being he was bigger than most everybody else. not fat, jus bigger built.
well, as kidz are, he got picked on some, not a lot, jus every so often. every once in a while, i would join in, but not much. i would talk to him sometimes, either about the book he was reading or because he was one of the few that understood most everything i did.
now, i knew this guy all of elementary school. one year, i wanna say fifth grade, i was having a bunch of people spend the night at my house for my birthday. i invited him not because we were really close friends, but because i knew him and i also knew he didn't hang out with many people from school. it went about as any sleepover with a bunch of guyz would, a lot of joking and messing around all night. we messed with him some, but for the most part jus had a good time
well, at the end of sixth grade. it was the last day of school, and we were having our lil party. a couple of people had noticed he wasn't there, but didn't think much of it. near the middle of the day, a lady came in the room and talked to the teacher. to my surprise, she then walked over to me.
she told me "sorry he couldn't make it today, but he wanted to make sure you got this." and handed me a stuffed m&m. there was an envelope with it
inside was a card. the front said thank you
in it, was a little note. it read, "Thank you jesse for being my friend. All these years here, your the only friend i ever had. I was so excited when you invited me to your house. I thought i would let you know i was moving. Again, thank you."

to this day, i nearly cry everytime i think about that. i wasn't his friend. i barely talked to him. i didn't deserve for him to think that, because i picked on him along with everybody else. the only difference is that i did talk to him sometimes

you never know what the slightest thing you do might do to someone else. you might not even realize the impact you have on them

christian burkhalter, if you happen to be reading this, by some wonderful stroke of luck i just want to say i'm sorry for not being a better friend