I was an isolated teenager in high school, a loser. I was never rejected by any female because I never approached any. I never fit in, and always kept to myself. I was never popular because I was too occupied doing what benefited me. When others went to parties, I would pretend I was too busy partying somewhere else, which was a lie. I built my own world where I fitted in perfectly.

There was no one to impress but myself. I did not want to fit in with anyone else but those whom I called my friends. From my perspective, other teenagers were too stupid to realise reality has a way of paying back for the damages committed by others. I was practically perfect, but not perfect at all.

Within my solitary group of friends, we all had family problems and most of us had absent fathers. It seemed like the universe didn’t want us to be happy.

We were strong enough to resist the world of temptations, which loomed over us in the dark. There was a time when one of our friends was new to our group. I remember how we would try our best to avoid him, not knowing that he was the missing piece of our little puzzle. Now the bond in our little solitary group is unbreakable.

We were real and we shared our life experiences, our feelings, backgrounds and problems. We helped each other solve problems and we lived a normal life, smiling day after day. These are the things I would not want to share with any other living creature.

In high school, life was easy and life was hard. We had the middle class and the average class, which was considered as not poor but just there. Most of us learnt at an early age that money wasn’t everything. But not for one of our hilarious and mysterious friends, who always had to budget for everything, even when it was not necessary.

He made us giggle day after day, talking about making money and saving. He would say women are expensive and he needed to prepare. He did not get the basic message of our initiation — make the best with what you have, you only live once; so do what you can to put up a smile and never hurt another.

Looking back at 7th Grade, there was a group of girls who despised me for my personality. They would walk up to me from time to time and call me names. They said I was stupid, how could I repeat the 7th grade? I would actually join them and laugh along until the joke wasn’t funny any more.

Years later, within that group of girls, there was teenage pregnancy, drug addictions, school drop outs. This was heart breaking but I never rubbed it in their faces. I was too busy enjoying my friendship to even notice them, and I knew what it felt like; I knew what self-destruction felt like.

Looking at myself now with my humble personality, I have made it this far without any problems. In high school I was known as Mr Nice Life Problems because of my everyday smile and personality. I had taken the Mr Nice Life Problems personality as one of my own. My only goal was to make any life problem a nice life problem, and make the best out of what I had.

Throughout my high school life, as best friends we stood behind each other, looking after each other’s backs like brothers. We never looked down on one another. Even now I am looking forward to being an uncle to one of my brothers in arms’ little creation.

A positive personality will help you reach your most ambitious goals. A negative personality will just slow you down, I learnt that the hard way. Even though I smiled everyday I was compressing my feelings and learning to be happy through the positive and negative environments. The most important life lessons are taught every day, everyone just needs to pay attention.

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