Escape.
Don't we all want out of it?
These feeling begin in childhood. And thus, begins phase one of this story.
-Be My Escape-
American schools are like a bell curve. At the farthest left end of the curve are kids with learning disabilities. Their various degrees of disability increase the further left one continues. These children, with recent legislation, are given equal opportunities and specially tailored schooling to help them learn as best they can.
On the other end of the curve, to the right, are the gifted kids. Like children with learning disabilities, these children have special needs in their schooling to get what they can out of life. And the farther right, the higher the IQ and the greater the distance from their peers.
But instead of treating these children with the same care and attention as the left side of the curve, these children are thrust aside. They're smart, logic argues. They can handle being ahead of everyone. They can just supplement, right?
Such a child, forced to live among classmates that neither recognized nor cared that this child had an extraordinary mind and soaring IQ, was Dib.
Ever since kindergarten, Dib was made fun of because he always knew the answer, because he could read adult literature at that young age, and because he questioned the teacher incessantly, in a quest to know more. The first day of first grade, Dib almost fell out of his chair from waving his hand. He KNEW the answer; he wanted to give it so badly.
The teacher knew he knew, as did the rest of the kids. He was ignored. This routine continued, until, one day, Dib didn't raise his hand. And the days on which he did became less and less.
There's a Japanese proverb: The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
And though no one ever did it intentionally, Dib was slowly being hammered down. He withdrew into the paranormal, to escape. To run from the world which was smothering him.
And yet, though all common sense told him to suppress it, to not be so smart, he refused to listen. He KNEW he was right. Right about his brain, right about aliens, and right about everything everyone said he was wrong about.
It had been a very harsh blow to realize that everyone was NOT as smart as he was. That day came in fifth grade when the Alien marched right into his class.
Ms. Bitters introduced Zim just as she would have any other new kid. Dib was the ONLY one who recognized him for what he was, and no one believed him, even though it was obvious.
It hit him like a ton of bricks that he was alone, isolated on a mountain top.
And although the world didn't believe him, Dib would show them that he was right, that he was worthy. He WOULD make something of himself, to make his dad, his classmates, and the world proud of him.
Adversity, we get around it.
Dib wasn't sure when he began believing in only himself. But he was determined to prove that he was stronger than the rest. Maybe they had isolated him. Maybe they did call him crazy. Maybe no one else believed him, or IN him. But that didn't mean anything. He'd prove himself.
Stronger than the strongest man, have confidence.
Like Iron, be determined and resilient.
Dib could wait for his chance to shine. Until then, it was only a matter of surviving the slings and arrows of life. Dib's choice- to be or not to be- was to live. And although living was hard, he knew he'd make it.
Kids aren't born with high IQs just becasue, you know.