Once school started again, I was relieved because I could get away from the older kids. Without them around, I no longer had to endure the daily teasing because most of the kids my age didn’t really tease me as much. Not saying that my friends didn’t tease me—they did, and I figured they only did it to look cool in front of the older kids. I didn’t understand how they could torture me one minute and then want to play with me the next, but since I didn’t have a lot of “good” friends to play with, I hung out with them anyway.
As luck would have it, a few months into the school year a kid named Joe moved into an empty house down the street with his family. After a few days of getting to know him, we became the best of friends and would hang out every day. We played video games, watched movies or just sat and ate pizza and laughed. I suppose the reason we became such good friends so quickly was because we had a lot in common, and we were both very overweight.
Just before the summer, Joe’s family purchased a catering truck business so they could cook and sell authentic Mexican food around the city. Everyday they would run their truck from six in the morning until nine o’clock at night. When they would come home after a long day’s work, Joe and I would take over the cooking for all the neighbors who came by for an evening snack. After we were done cooking, which was usually around ten o’clock, it was our turn to eat. First, we would eat an extra large burrito with a large soda. Next we would have a taco or two. Then, we would top it off with a king-sized candy bar or an ice cream for dessert. We ate and ate mindlessly, sometimes until we were almost sick and couldn’t eat anymore.
One year after meeting my "eating partner"
The Weigh In
After more than a year of constant feasting, our routine became a daily habit. I would split a large pizza and a two liter of soda with Joe during the day, and at night, I would have my usual meal when the catering truck arrived. Although I noticed I was gaining weight, it never occurred to me just how much until my oldest sister made both of us get on the scale. The year before Joe arrived, when I had started the fifth grade, I weighed just over 120 pounds. Now, I was shocked to discover that I weighed a whopping 193 pounds. Sure, I had grown a few inches taller and stood at about five feet. But even so, I couldn’t justify gaining seventy pounds. Even worse was the fact that me and Joe were both the same height, yet he tipped the scales at 242 pounds. A whole 49 pounds more than me, and didn’t seem to mind. I was only 12, but I realized that I had to make some changes or my weight would continue to get out of hand.
