text: They say that we are all the heroes of our own stories, but I'd beg to differ. What if we were made to be the sidekick for other's success stories? I thought this was kind of stupid too, until I began to really think about it and reflect on my life. I began to find similarities between my story and Joey's from Yugioh or Brock from Pokémon; yes, I had my own accomplishments but ultimately, I couldn’t see the direction I needed to go in to complete my story, I just seem to be floating around hopping from story to story helping others on their quest with no clear end game for me. My name is Caleb Dudley, I'm a 20-year-old Male living in Florida and this is the story of how I became a sidekick. I started my life as most American kids do; going to school, making friends and not caring about anything except when P.E was. I went to multiple nice schools, not really fitting in anywhere, I was always the outsider, the expendable kid. Not only was I aggressive to my teachers/school staff, there were very few people I really trusted. Looking back at it now I’d say it was because my father wasn’t there much, and my step dad influenced my mother to create a abusive household- hell on earth in the middle of a suburb. I think the only thing that kept me from truly snapping was my childhood best friend Vikram. I can’t thank him enough for keeping me grounded in some of the hardest times of my life. I can see that he was the first hero I became the sidekick for. He was the brains and I was the brawn, we were unstoppable in anything we did. In 4th grade my mother moved us to San Antonio Texas for her work, away from my friends and from my dad I had nothing. This is where I had to develop myself; something snapped in me and I suddenly stopped being aggressive and I stopped crying but I still felt alone. I did find new friends but I knew they only befriended me because I was an outsider and an outsider I would continue to be. 5th grade we moved back to Florida where I attended my old elementary school and was accepted into a International Baccalaureate middle school. This school was supposed to be a government implemented program where they take “gifted” kids from all over the city and put them in a school in the middle of bad neighborhoods. To me things were looking up, we moved back into our old house, I had my friends again and I had my hero again to help me through my shitty living situation. This all came crashing down when I started middle school. See because I had to go to this neighborhood for school I spent about 4 hours of my day on a bus with other kids, both in middle school and high school, in my situation. I thought everything was going great; the same kids who knew about my troubled elementary school years were going to the local middle school, so this was a clean slate. My feelings were affirmed when I started school, for reasons unknown I became the class clown and everyone knew me as such. By 8th grade I was on top of the school, I even became close with most of the cliques in the school; being the glue that made our class so close. This, unfortunately, became the only happiness I had in my life at the time. My best friend, being 2 years older than me and having strict parents, was busy making the most of his high school years, destined to do great things as any hero should. The 4 hours I spent on the bus everyday became my 2nd hell but was also where I met my 2nd hero. My bus ride was where I was bullied almost every single day, they couldn’t make fun of my clothes because there was a uniform requirement at my school but they made fun of everything else they could, sometimes even resorting to physical violence. To this day I hate thinking about my time on that bus. I was ultimately the damsel in distress, which is where my hero came into play. In 8th grade a new high schooler rode our bus named Valarie, just by talking to her you could tell she was a social outcast, just the person to not give a fuck about others opinions. She became my new hero, someone who would help me through 8th grade and protect me from the kids on the bus while I became her sidekick, someone who would be there to talk to her and make her laugh. You probably get the point by now: I remain a social outcast, I get bullied some more, I find a new hero, I move, repeat. You’re probably bored with this post by now and I don’t blame you. This looks like one big sob story to be honest. I guess the only reason I made this was to warn everyone to not be a sidekick like me. I need help, I need a new hero.