To All The Michaels I Have Ever Known

Letter #4

I'm going to start with Michael numero uno.

He was fourteen, and only a tad bit older than me. You are the only one that's younger than me, actually. Anyway, I'll start at the beginning. I don't remember if I told you about this, but I was homeschooled until my freshman year of high school. By then, I was tired of teaching myself things. I wanted to absorb the knowledge from other people, not from the over-written, over-analyzed textbooks. I chose the Lutheran school, our school, and I dived right in. It was a bit of a culture shock, but it was worth it. Michael was in my computers class and for some god-forsaken reason, I ended up liking him. He knew it, too. He came up for demeaning nicknames for me and he would say terrible things and kind of push me around. We could say that I was a bit of a masochist. But then I wrote him a letter (apparently this is a long term thing I'm doing here), and he realized what a dick he was, and then we were friends. It was great. We texted and ended up being really good friends all throughout high school. He explained that he just didn't know what to do about me and that he didn't want anyone to know he was a teddy bear on the inside. He wanted to be cool and popular.

That's where you come in. You used to worry way too much about what people thought of you. You would use stupid lingo that only the "ghetto" kids used. You would go after the cheerleader and try to be someone totally different, just for her. It was sick. It made me sick. I think that now you have finally realized that no one knows you for who you really are. I think you are a lot more comfortable with yourself now. Being friends with who you want to be. Being socially mature. Using intelligent words (see letter #2 for reference.) It's a good thing. A great thing actually. And the fact that we can actually have a decent conversation now is my favorite. Probably a little bit too much so.