Milton G. Eddeson is my name, and I am seventeen years old. I live on a farm here in Ames, Iowa, with my mom, pop, and little brother, Haney, who's nine--and autistic.
My mom and pop are pig farmers. Basically, that means they raise pigs for meat; it's our source of income. Now, we don't have a lot of of money, but we do have a lot of love in our home.
Homelife is good; it's when I step outside the home where life takes a dramatic downturn.
Y'see, besides my little brother's problems, I have my own set of problems that make me stand out. I am facially disfigured; have Apert's syndrome, and I am not much to look at. People make fun of my face, and the fact that I'm a farmer's kid.
They call me names like "Ugly", "Pig-Boy" (the most common), "Porky" (another popular choice), or even worse, names with curse words attached to them. Don't want to go into it, but it's bad, it's really bad. Sometimes the teasing's so bad I want to hide somewhere, and never come out again.
There's been days where I've gotten sick to my stomach, even to the point of throwing up; and at times I have come home in tears. Now, I know I'm a big, strapping teenage boy, but when kids tease me constantly, it eats at my conscience, and it makes me feel like a total loser, like I'm not even worth anything.
It's always the good-looking, "beautiful" rich kids who do the worst of the teasing. None of the uglier kids or the misfits ever do the teasing; it's always the snobs, the athletes, the smart ones who should know better.
It's getting to the point where I don't even want to go to school.
I'm really looking forward to Christmas break; we will have two weeks off, and I won't even have to worry about the bad kids picking on me. I can concentrate on finishing my Christmas shopping for the family and doing whatever I want.
Well, I am going to go. Time to head on to my next class. History. Ugh. I HATE History class!! I will write in here again; until later, this is Milton signing out of here. Take care and God bless!
~Milton G. Eddeson (aka "Pig-Boy"). :(
