Always Been This Way

A few years ago, my mom told me something my kindergarten teacher had told her about me in their parent-teacher conference. She said that my teacher had noticed I was... intolerant, to say the least, of some of the other children. I wasn't able to mask my disgust with those around me who couldn't keep up. I was doing this when I was five years old. Can you believe that? I didn't know a five-year-old had the capacity for meanness. Now that I look back on it, though, I probably shouldn't be so surprised. I mean, when I threatened to lynch that one kid, along with his entire "ignorant WOP family," I should have known something was up. When I burned that girl's hair because she didn't know the difference between "wear" and "where," I should have guessed that there was something wrong. I think the big sign that I was a little too insensitive came when I chopped off the left hand and foot of that really stupid kid who, in hindsight, I now realize was probably autistic. Fortunately, Christian schools don't hold back children who are "intolerant" or "insensitive" or "have been convicted of a hate crime." So now you know. I may not have always been the upstanding citizen you've grown to know and love, but at least I was made that way by a wonderful combination of loving parents, sincere faith, and brutal parole officers.