Growing up so fast, meant, that my maturity was incomplete, I was beyond my years in certain areas, but short in others.If you are forced to grow up in a hurry, you don't have a good balance in all areas, You learn what is necessary for the task at hand .and become completely ignorant in other areas.Just like so many other times in my life, things were complicated, by other issues, this time, it was my physical growth.in grade seven I was 5 ft 9 in and weighed 170 lbs.I was one of the biggest fellows in my school.My desire to" father" some of the smaller and younger guys also lead me into situations, that were not my place to deal with.One such case involved a small Chinese boy who was being bullied the schoolyard bully.I saw this happening and tried everything I could to stop it peacefully, but my efforts only made things worse.One day I had to stay in at lunch time to finish some school work, as a result I came down late.Our school was set up so, that the boys and girls use to enter and exit from separate doors in the basement, that were separated by the boiler room.I reached the basement and found, the Chinese boy sitting there crying, I didn't have to be told what was happening, so I took my little friend, through the boiler room and out through the girls door.I made sure he got away safely, then went back to the boys entrance and left that way.The bully was hiding behind the door and thinking I was my little friend coming out, attacked, to his surprise it was me.The altercation was over very quickly.After lunch I learnt a lot about the bully mentality, He had reported the fight to the principle and I was called into the office where the bully was.The principle asked for my side of the story. I told him everything when asked if my side was accurate, the bully started to cry and said, that he had a right to pick on the smaller student, but I had no right defending him.With that, I was sent back to class and the bully was sent home.To this day, I can't understand how anyone can think that way.
My size along with the fact that I started to get a few gray hairs.allowed me to run with a much older crowd.My first real girlfriend was 16 and I was 13.When I was 15, I could easily pass for 18, the drinking age in Buffalo.I became a regular at the bar scene in Buffalo soon after my 15 the birthday.Deep down I knew I didn't belong there, so I felt I had to prove myself every night. Soon these actions gave me a reputation as a hard drinking, hard playing soul, who was the life of the party.I knew I wasn't all that, but a had to keep it up, to fit in, in my mind.My street education was advancing in leaps and bounds, but inside I knew I was just a scared kid, in well over my head.This lead me into minor scrapes with the law, but for some reason every time I was about to get in too deep something would happen, I would catch a break.I would usually put the breaks on and get out just before things would fall apart completely, avoiding the major troubles that the others who continued on got into.It seemed I would walk up to the line and stop just before going over it.In retrospect, I now believe that GOD was in my corner protecting me.