I lived a ten minutes minute walk from the high school, and walked to and from school everyday. Began year 8 back in 2000, i had just turned 13 at the time. All of my friends from my primary school ended up going to Salisbury High, whilst i was made to go to Paralowie. It was difficult for a shy boy who was somewhat an introvert, to make friends. I found i was quite different from most of the other kids. Try as i did to make friends i wasn’t exactly the coolest, and being cool was a big thing. Over time despite my efforts to stay out of trouble, as i didn’t want to piss my old man off for getting into fights, i found that fighting was a niche that set me aside from most of the kids there. I became known as a very unpredictable and  troubled teen. I didn’t care if it was in the classroom, corridor, basketball court or the oval, id fight. At times picking up the desk and chair and using them as my weapons. Despite all the trouble it got me, and the physical pain, i gained respect. It was untold respect, but i could see it that i had it from most of the kids.

It wasn’t long until i developed a circle of mates, who to this day still remain close friends. Was i ever one of the cool popular kids?, never was. But i wasn’t some nerd neither, i was something in the middle. I hardly ever spoke to any of the nerds, and actually never after year 9 when i come to think of it. I did occasionally talk to the cool kids, but they tended to be either far below my IQ, and the girls especially were way too up themselves. I never liked teen drama and i tried to keep out of it the best i could. I was the kid who’d get into a vicious fight one day, be a week suspended, come back to school, wag class and still get an A. I never had to look for trouble, it came my way most of the time, so did the girls. The thing was that i much rather preferred bashing somebody than holding a girl back in those days. So i either played handball, smoked pot and cigarettes, wagged class or punched my way to happiness back in those days.