In my freshman year I had no friends. I joined the class of 2025 a month late, showing up to school in mid to late October instead of early September like I was supposed to, a fault on the part of the NYCDOE who were totally incompetent and woefully mishandled the enrollment of several kids around my age into school. That one month really made a difference because I was a total pariah when I first showed up. I did everything by myself, even eating lunch alone most days. I only started to really interact with my classmates when I asked to join a group of boys who would eventually come to be my friends in a game of basketball. The rest was history but man, did it ever take some balls on my part to get to that point. I was so fraught with then-unmedicated anxiety that I could hardly bring myself to approach them, teetering on the verge of a meltdown as I grappled with the possibility of being rebuffed and clowned. I did it, though, and eventually I found a clique of sorts. More readi...