Free Write From Class 2/11/08---My Ears at Age 12 or 13

My ears have always felt normal to me. I mean, I could hear out of them and they never hurt, so how could anything be wrong? However, there was something terribly wrong with them: they were too small for my head. Or so said my friend in school. One day, we were all sitting in class when I heard my friend Jesse say from the back of the room, "Josh's ears are so too small for his head." Immediately the class started laughing at me, and I didn't know what to do. It wasn't like Jesse was a bully in the school or anything; in fact, I considered him one of my better friends at school. However, from that period until the rest of the year, I became obsessed self-consciously with the idea that my ears were too small for my head. Was it true? Probably not. However, the face still remained that each day for about a year or so, I'd stare at myself in the mirror and pull them so I could try and make them grow. I hoped that it could work-hell, I was hoping for Dumbo ears in my predicament-but I knew deep down that nothing was going to happen. And it never did. My ears never seemed to grow. Jesse never said another thing after that one day, but the damage was done. He has since left me with an underlying conscience that my ears are too small for my head.