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[evilevilmonkey]

As many of you already know. My name is Mel although I mostly go by the nickname Jack, I’m 23 & live in a small country town in Australia. I’ve lived in this town almost all of my life. I was born in Sydney but my parents moved here when I was 2, so this is the only place I can remember living. I’ve also hated living here for as long as I can remember.
I like most people here was picked on throughout most of my schooling. Although I was born & have lived all my life in Australia, I’m not Australian, by race anyway. My Mother is South African & my Father is Scottish. So I have a mixed accent. Couple that with the fact that I was my parent’s only child & my parents spoke to me like they would any adult, so when I started school I had an extensive vocabulary even more so than many of the older children let alone the children my age. So as I’ve said before this is a small country town complete with a small country town mentality. I think my family must be one of the only foreign families around here. So easy way for a child to be instantly unpopular have them not only speak differently from all the other children but also have them use words the other children can’t understand. This was reason alone for me to be intensely unpopular from Kindergarten right through to the end of primary school. In small country towns where there is no such thing as diversity to children anything different is bad. The first few years of high school where not much better the only difference was new kids with a different reason to want to pick on me. I gained all my puppy weight for puberty just before I started High School. So I got the whole fat thing for a couple of years. A few years in I had lost the weight & became according to most ‘pretty’. So of course high school being the bullshit shallow superficial place that it is I could now I gain acceptance with one of the cooler groups. I would never hangout with the main popular group, I would never of hungout with all the bitches that had picked on me. So I ended up hanging out with group of ‘Bad Girls.’ Of course once in a group in high school you have assimilate, so of course I did. I smoked, drank, wagged & was a total bitch to everyone. It should of bothered me picking on other people when I had been picked on most of my life… but I wasn’t about to complain it finally wasn’t me coping all of the shit & high school is a dog eat dog world. Even though I finally gained acceptance the end of school was still the happiest time of my life. I’ll never miss any of it. Of course I hated being picked on but I hated the fact that I had turned into a total douchebag myself just as much.
Thankfully after the hell of schooling I have had a pretty nice quiet adult life. The only thing good that ever came out of high school is that was where I met my now husband. The only other nerd I’ve ever met around here. We were best friends for about 5 years before we got together & we have now been together for about 3 years. I don’t have many friends around here, I only still hangout with 2 of the girls I used to hangout with in high school. But it doesn’t bother me. My Husband & I both work Full-Time at the moment, so we just like to spend time together on the weekends. Although I wouldn’t mind having some nerdy friends, it would be nice to have some friends that I could relate too. But all in all I can’t complain. My life is pretty good.
I think that although most of us didn’t have the best time a school the positive is I think it makes you a stronger adult. Plus it makes you really appreciate the relationships in you’re life that really matter. Not only does my husband mean the world to me, although I have lived out of home for 4 years now I still have a very close relationship with my parents. I still see my parents everyday. My Mum & I work together at the same company & my Dad who is now retired looks after my husband & my 2 dogs while we’re at work. Plus we usually have dinner with my parents twice a week. I love my parents & although I may of gotten a lot of shit for my mixed accent when I was little, I’m glad that my parents where foreign & as far as I’m concerned I have a beautiful cultural heritage. The main thing I got from my South African side is the food that we eat. Although my husband & I are quite lazy when it comes to cooking (we eat takeaway most nights) if I cook it’s the South African way because my mother taught me how to cook. And of course when we have dinner at my parent’s house it’s always South African food. My Father always made a point of teaching me about my Scottish heritage. Like I know that my family is part of the Lamont Clan & what our Clan Tartan is. When I was about 11 Dad thought it would be good for me to get more involved in Scottish Culture so he took me to join a Scottish Pipe Band. I chose to play the Tenor Drum (if you’ve ever seen a Pipe Band the Tenor Drummers are the ones that twirl the Drum Sticks.) I loved it. But of course when I was a teenager I didn’t want to do it anymore because it wasn’t cool. I have however just recently taken it up again & I still love it. I’m proud of my Scottish Heritage, so it’s really wonderful to be able to express it. Oh one more thing I got from my Father’s Scottishness is a love of good Scotch lol.
Of course there a things I would still change. I would ideally like to study astrophysics or genetics. I would love to be an Astrophysicist although a Geneticist would also be awesome. And I definitely don’t want to stay in this godforsaken town for the rest of my life. Ideally I don’t think I’d stay in Australia. If I had the money I’d probably move to Scotland. Maybe I will one day. But as I said all in all my life is pretty good now days. With any luck maybe it will get ever better.