Courage: Overcoming Fear and Igniting Self-Confidence Read Online Free PDF Page B

beautiful. Now if I could just keep my mouth closed, maybe I could avoid someone calling me Metal Mouth.
    Arriving at the dance, I checked out all the other girls and then headed straight to the corner where the “safe” girls were hanging out. They weren’t cool or popular, and, without any special status to maintain and protect, they were pretty welcoming. So I found my spot and stayed in the corner, praying that some cute boy would ask me to dance. The music was loud, and the band knew all the latest hits. Things were looking pretty promising.
    In a matter of seconds, boys began surrounding me. I was excited. Maybe I had won a prize or was being picked as the best-dressed girl. They were all looking at me with giant smiles, and I felt like I had entered a dream. I didn’t have any idea what was going on as they picked me up and started carrying me toward the high stage. Then my heart dropped as I heard the words of Joe Tex’s “Skinny Legs and All.”
    Say man, don’t walk ahead of that woman
    Like she don’t belong to you
    Just ’cause hers got them little skinny legs.
    You know, that ain’t no way to do.
    You didn’t act like that when you had it home
    behind closed doors, alright.
    Now you act like you’re ashamed at a woman
    Or you don’t want nobody to know she’s yours
    But that’s alright, just walk on baby.
    And don’t you worry about a doggone thing at all
    Because there’s some man, somewhere,
    Who’ll take you baby, skinny legs and all.
    As I fought back the tears, they were holding me half in the air, walking through the crowded dance floor. All I could think of were all the people who could see up my dress. Then, without hesitation, they marched up the stairs to where the band was blaring, “Who’s that girl with the skinny legs?” and placed me in the middle of the stage. I heard the entire crowd laughing hysterically at me. The band seemed to love all the laughing and clapping and sang out louder, wanting to capture their glory. Meanwhile, I stood in a pool of tears that I couldn’t keep from pouring out of me.
    Now, who’ll take the woman with the skinny legs?
    C’mon somebody please take the lady with the skinny legs.
    Now, you all know the lady with the skinny legs
    Got to have somebody too, now
    Will somebody please take the lady
    With the skinny legs, please?
    “Hey Joe” “Yeah Bobby?”
    “Why don’t you take her?” “You-a-fool?
    “I don’t want no woman with no skinny legs.”
    On and on it went as I stood in front of my entire school class, shamed and humiliated. I was frozen in fear. All the feelings of worthlessness, not being good enough, and not fitting in filled me. I did everything in my power to fight back the tears and get hold of myself. Even though I wanted to scream and run off the stage, I just stood there, unable to move. Instead of walking away with some confidence and swagger, I stood like a coward, letting myself once again be the brunt of a joke that was anything but funny. Who would want to be my friend? How would I ever find a boyfriend who would want to be with a skinny-legged loser like me? My big night to finally be someone special turned into a nightmare over the course of just one song. It was the worst moment of my youth. I felt branded for life.
    I replayed this incident in my head afterward, hoping it would come out with a better ending. But I knew no one would come to save me; no one ever had before. If I was going to survive in this world, I would have to save myself.
    My insecurities grew deeper as I devised a plan to just get through the end of my school year. I feared the teasing more than anything else. I remember trying to do anything to be invisible and stay away from the mean kids. Sometimes I even became the teaser so that I wouldn’t get teased myself. Every day on my walk home from McNicol Junior High, I cried from a broken heart. All I ever wanted was to fit in and belong. I didn’t need to be the most popular girl. I just