The beginning of that school year became my first and only experience being bullied. I do not recall how or why it started, but the group I was trying to fit in with spent their recesses played a ridiculous game whereby a ball was kicked. If the ball didn’t go where it was supposed to (and it never did…) then they had the ‘right’ to line up and kick me in the shins. 

Believe me, I laugh about this now, but as a kid… Ouch! Inside and out.

And, somehow, in the midst of all this, I earned the nickname “Chicken Legs”… because well, you get it, right? When I say I was skinny, I mean it.

I told no one I was being kicked at every recess, but I did tell my mother about the nickname. She thought it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. 

“Chicken Legs!” She howled.

In her defence, she knew my legs were going to be an ugly duckling story. She herself had passed through a chicken-legs phase before morphing into a Betty Grable pin-up.

This started out to be a post about the imposed transitions we make in life. We all have to move from childhood to adolescence, adult to senior. My transition into this new school was a precursor to my transition from unselfconscious kid to leg shamed adolescent. 

As for the bullying, that clutch of shin-kickers made an error in their terror. One day, in punishment for who knows what, they stopped speaking to another girl for a few days. She and I buddied up, the group dynamic changed, and I was never kicked in the shins again. 

There is a part two to this “Chicken legs” story… maybe next week. My intention for this post was to bring to mind your own transitions and the incidents that marked them.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.  Your comments, questions, ideas and suggestions are always welcome.  You can comment here, or choose between Facebook, Twitter, or the contact button.  

Anne Milne is an every Sunday blogger.  I keep it short and to the point.  Topics are as wide ranging as a straight but not narrow path.