We belong together

Timon Keller

Something awesome happened in school last year. There was this group of kids in my class—five boys and two girls—who were troublemakers and hard to get along with.

One day, one of the boys threw me against a wall so hard that I lost my breath for a minute and fell to the ground. My friends helped me, and I was all right, but we all were kind of scared. I used to like school, and frankly, I became afraid to go.

At school it was as if everybody was looking away, and I didn't want to be a tattletale. I told my parents about what had happened and prayed with my mother to find strength and courage not to fight back, and also not to be frustrated. I wanted to be able to love.