The Apple Machine

Where do you go to find your confidence?
I am hoping that my journey goes viral as they say today among college kids.
It seems that this generation is so lacking in their confidence and have no idea or desire to confront it.

I found myself in the cafeteria in Junior High.
Memorial Junior High School. The worst two years of my life.
One day I was talking with a friend in front of the apple machine. Yes, in the early 60's, they even had such a contraption.
"Isn't that the ugliest boy in school?"
Do you ever forget an incident like that?
How do you recover your confidence?

A black girl makes a comment to me.
Another time.
Same place.
I snap.
People are going to have to pay for their indignities.
I lash out with a punch.
She beats me silly as if I were her sparring partner.
The whole school sees this boy beaten in a fistfight.....by a girl!
How do you recover from that to become the confident man I am today?
I want others to share my journey.
So they can embark on their own.