Broken leg

When I was six years old I was playing with my friend in her back yard one day, we were standing in the middle of the yard when her dog Honey came running toward us.  Honey wasn't running to attack us, I believe she was running toward a flock of birds that had landed at the end of the yard.  Unfortunately for me, Honey was not going to change course, she was heading in a straight line and I was in her way.  So I did what I thought would be a sensible thing to do, considering that I had little time to react - I jumped OVER her and twisted my left leg, breaking it at the knee.  Honey kept running, she didn't turn around or try to attack me, so I knew it wasn't me she was after, it was the birds.

The break was so severe that I was unable to straighten my leg out, it was bent back behind me.  My friend's dad carried me home because I was howling in pain (he had no idea my leg was broken), then my parents took me to hospital.  I had to go under a general anaesthetic to have my leg straightened and put into plaster, then I stayed in hospital another couple of weeks because I was so traumatized by my experience that I refused to do a bowel movement and the hospital refused to let me go home until I did. 

This could be related to the freeze response I had with Jack a few weeks ago when he came running at me barking and threatening to bite me, but I don't know for sure.  I certainly don't have a fear of dogs, I love them and have had a few as pets throughout my life.

I hate my 3rd class teacher

The only time I ever truly felt thin and thought I looked thin was up until the age of 7.  I looked a healthy, normal size in photos, even now when I look at my class photos I was just a regular size kid, the only real difference I noticed between me and my friends was that I was the tallest girl in the class, I was even taller than many of the boys.

When I was 8, my school teacher decided it would be a good idea to weigh each student and display our weights on a poster in our classroom. To this day I still don't remember or understand what the point of it was, but it drew attention to the fact that I was heavier and I clearly recall a boy in my class teasing and laughing at me because I was the heaviest girl in the class. I was probably only 5-6kg or 12-14lb heavier than most of the girls, I certainly wasn't "chubby" or fat, but I definitely felt that way from that day on.

Thanks alot Mrs Mallett (or Mullett, as we called you).  You took away a part of my childhood that I should have been able to experience without feeling so self-conscious.

By the age of 11, I was definitely starting puberty so I started to fill out even more and that was when I truly started to feel that I was being judged by my size.  I was one of five girls in my class who were nominated for school captain and we were marched around to each classroom by the school principal so that students could vote for who they wanted as captain.  I felt so self-conscious standing there in front of all those kids, and I got the least votes.  Those kids were judging me and giving votes to the other girls, purely on how we looked.  They knew nothing about me, they didn't know that I was the smartest student in my class or the best speller, all they cared about was how I looked.  What a stupid way to choose the school captain, what possessed the teachers to let the students decide?  My confidence took even more of a beating that day and I started to feel even more ashamed about my body.