In my entire life I can only recall ever having one true friend. He was, well... besides my parents and family, the only person that liked me for who I was. He was never ashamed to be around me, even when I acted out or did things that were just plain out of the ordinary. After he came into my life, he stuck with me and held me together during much of my early years, while others simply avoided me because I was different.

My first two years of Primary School were an absolute failure for me. I didn't have a single friend for those two years and I always found myself alone no matter what I did. My mom always told me that it was because I was too shy and didn't try to make friends in school. That however, was never the case for me. I always tried to make new friends in school, but every time I did try, I would end up talking nonstop until they just told me to leave them alone, or until they hit me with two words that always seemed to sting my young, fragile heart. You're weird.

There's only a certain amount of failure that one person can take. After receiving the same rejection from every person in my class, and taking on the name Luke the Weirdo, my attitude towards school completely changed. I hated myself for being weird and I secluded myself away from everyone. Even during recess. I would just stay in the classroom and either draw or read until everyone came back inside. It was the same thing, day after day and I never understood what exactly made me weird for a long time.

My parents began to worry immensely about me and my health. I mean what adult wouldn't worry when their child was seven years old and still didn't have a single friend? So when the day came that I finally told them that I had made a friend, I saw the happiest faces that I had ever seen from them. They were proud and ecstatic that I finally had someone to hang out with and talk to. Their excitement didn't last too long though. As soon as I introduced my new friend to them, their worried looks returned. I had indeed made a friend, but he was a friend that only I could see. He was my imaginary friend Jacob.

My status at school changed from weird to outcast after the day of our first show and tell. Everyone brought in toys or pictures and excitement filled the air as each person presented. When it was my turn, I introduced Jacob to all my classmates. Big mistake on my part. I was laughed at by classmates and even my teacher and word quickly spread in the school about my weirdness. It was no longer a few people who thought I was weird, everyone now thought I was weird. I came home in tears that day and everyday afterwards until my parents finally had enough. When they told me that we were moving to a different state and that I would be leaving my school, I felt a mixture of emotions. I was happy that I didn't have to go to my current school anymore, but was also nervous that I would be starting a new school in less than a week.

The next day my parents woke me up and got me ready like they usually did every morning and I began to fear that they had changed their minds about the move. I was relieved however, when my mom stated that I was just going to the doctor. My trip to the doctor was really interesting to me. What usually took a few minutes would end up taking a few hours and I soon realized that I wasn't going to my regular doctor.

When I meet Dr. Langston, I noticed a few things different about her than with my past doctors. The first thing I took notice of was the fact that she wore normal clothing. No white lab coat or scrubs, but a pair of jeans and a grey t-shirt. The next thing that I noticed was that her office was just a normal room. She told me to take a seat on the large sofa and I did so without any hesitation. She then told me to tell her about the problems I was having at school. I felt some relief go through me and I quickly opened up to her. I told her every detail of the issues I was experiencing at school. During our session I could see her studying me and my movements as I continued talking about my life. After what seemed like hours to me, she called in my parents. Dr. Langston told them about our session and gave them a list of everything I had done during our session. After they went through the five sheets of paper, she told my parents that I had something known as ADHD and that it was the root cause to all the problems I was having. My parents were shocked to hear the news, but were just glad the session was over, that they had a diagnosis of my condition, and that I could finally leave.

Three days later we finally moved away from our home in Alabama to our new home in North Carolina. Because of my ADHD, which I didn't understand at the time, I quickly found myself bored beyond belief and began to get frustrated that the trip was taking so long. My mom tried to ease my frustration by telling me about our house and my new school, and tried to get me to sing along to one of those long car songs that seemed to go on forever. The thing she did managed to do however, was bore me to sleep. The drive took nearly twelve hours but I luckily slept through most of it. When we pulled up to our house and exited the car, there was something that immediately caught my eyes. Tons and tons of thick white snow lay frozen on the ground. I wanted to just dive directly into the snow and just waddle around in it forever, but since there was school tomorrow my parents wouldn't allow it.

Getting to sleep that night was absolutely out of the question for me. I had been asleep for ten hours on the way up to our new house and with my energy in full swing there was no way I was going to get any sleep. I sat there in bed for nearly twenty minutes before tossing the covers off my body and rolling out of the bed and onto the floor. I needed to do something, but it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. After giving it some thought, I decided that exploring the house was about the most adventurous thing I could do at the moment.

I slowly pushed my door open and stepped into the hallway. I decided that it would be best to start downstairs and work my way up. I crept down the hallway and slowly down the stairs until I reached the bottom step. I looked over the rail to make sure the coast was clear before stepping down off the last step into the living room. My feet were the first thing to register the fact that it was cold down in the living room. The change from carpet to hardwood may have been the culprit behind that though.

It was already past midnight, as of now, and I knew that in the back of my mind I was most likely going to get in trouble. But I also knew from previous experience that my parents would tend to let me off the hook on my birthday.

The living room was filled with boxes of unpacked things from our move and the adventurous side of me took over as I began searching through the boxes. The first box I came across was filled with my mom’s jewelry and personal items. I really didn’t find anything exciting about those, so I dropped that search and moved to a different box. The next box I searched was filled my toys and video games. I examined everything inside the box and finally pulled out my Superman cape from the corner of the box. I slipped it on over my shoulders and smiled at the fact that I was fully Superman now, even though I was only wearing a cape and a pair of tight fitting Superman briefs. I continued to search through more boxes until I came across a magazine from one of my dad’s boxes. I read the cover silently to myself and smiled at the fun I could have with this book. If the magazine was anything like the title said then I think Playboy would be an awesome thing to read. I opened the book to one of the bent pages and immediately dropped it before covering my eyes. With my eyes still shut, I grabbed the book off of the floor and tossed it back into the box.

By now, I could really begin to feel how cold it was on the first floor of our new home and was beginning to miss the warmth of my bed. I quickly made my way up the stairs and back into my bed, covering myself in with the sheets. I sighed at the warmness I felt returning to my body. After two hours of adventuring, I had begun to feel really tired. I closed my eyes and began to think about the next day. The thought of going to school tomorrow was very exciting to me. It was my first day at my new school and my birthday. I imagined all the friends that I would make at this school, and felt a new rush of confidence come over me. I surely wasn't going to mess this up.