My name is Robert and I am about to take you through a day in my life.  I’m thirteen years old and live with my mum, dad and older sister.  Life at home is relaxed and loving.  Home is my security blanket as you are about to find out what makes me feel this way.

Monday 7.00 a.m.  

I’m up for school and I am getting dressed in my room watching the telly.  Mum shouts me for breakfast.  Rushing down the stairs takes my breath away, but it’s worth the egg and bacon that greets me.  After a trip up the stairs to clean my teeth I’m ready to leave my safe secure surroundings for a day of ridicule at my high school.  The walk to the bus stop is a lonely one.  Friendships seem short lived due to the hassle I receive from a group of nasty boys in my year. This tends to put children off befriending me.  I don’t like the bus ride as I’m banged into and bashed about being big.  I always seem to get in the way.

My first class is English.  I love studying as I am very academic. When it comes to my next lesson games I feel self-conscious of my body and cannot get over the embarrassment to see if I would actually enjoy participating.  I stay at the back of the hall. Maybe I seem uninterested yet I’m crying out for them to involve me as part of their team.  My body is big, many say obese, but I’m a young boy in a no win situation because the longer I stand at the back of this hall the more I am thinking of what’s next on my timetable “ lunch”.

Lunchtime            

I feel hot, tired and uncomfortable at the moment.  Taking a seat at a spare table I tuck into my packed lunch which consist of two cheese barms, a Muller rice, a large bag of crisp and a mars bar followed by a can of coke.

I know by now you’re thinking my life is very solitary - you are right - but looking over my barmcake I’m about to be saved.  Sally has just walked in to the dining room.  We meet every afternoon.   I’ve known Sally since nursery.  Perhaps people think that because she is plump that’s what has pushed our friendship together but they are wrong.   I see she has the most attractive face and beautiful eyes I have ever seen hidden under her dark framed glasses.  Her hair is curly and to me falls delicately round the sides of her face perfectly.

For all the boys at the table behind us with the loud mouth taunts and their small minded attitudes, they haven’t yet realised that when I’m in Sally’s company they dissolve away completely.  I chat with Sally about my morning and she about hers and my solitary life is forgotten about for an hour or so.

Sally is big but to me she is the most kind hearted person I could wish to meet.  The society we live in can be so harsh. We leave the dining hall together, then part for our next lesson.  An afternoon of maths for me which I don’t struggle with.   I find it extremely interesting. I just struggle with the rubbers that are thrown and the laughter of the class at the jokes that seem to be at my expense.  The table digs into my stomach and restricts my movement, but I cope and carry on with my work.

I’m on the bus now, exhausted as I had to run to catch it. With sweat running down my back, I cannot wait to get home for a shower and a sit down.

At home     

By now I would usually be lying on the chair with a plate of food and my playstation control pad in my hand, but after reading a day in my life something has changed. I felt the need to open up about my feelings to my loving family and ask them for help and their support. We have now, as a family ,come up with a healthy eating plan and some time that we shall all share exercising together.

Don’t feel sad after reading A Day in My Life as maybe it was the kick-start I needed, to read about my unhappy life.  Tomorrow is the start of a new way of living.  I am going to improve my health and future. Although one thing’s for sure, I have the intelligence to see the inside and the best of people and not just look at the packaging.

PS  As for Sally and I, we shall keep you posted!