When I Couldn’t Shake the ‘Bad Kid’ Label

Kids are impressionable, and I was especially so. For years I formed my identity around impressions I got from other people. I figured that what the other kids liked and disliked, I would to.

I also figured what people said about me was true. A lot of kids do. Of course, I was willing to take the things the other kids said with a grain of salt. They could call me dumb, but I wouldn’t really believe it. Just like I didn’t really believe the one kid when he said that if your lips bleed too much, they’ll deflate and turn white (even though the concept seemed to terrify my friend). But as for what adults said — that was different.

To children, adults know everything. I always thought so. So when adults and teachers told me I was a bad kid, what was I supposed to believe? When I felt absolutely terrible about accidentally injuring another girl, they pulled me into another room and essentially interrogated me and told me how horrible I was. I was in third grade when that happened.

And I will never, ever forget being pulled into that tiny dark room. I’m not even sure what that room was for. It seemed to be designed for police interrogations. They yelled at me and told me how terrible I was. How I obviously did it on purpose. How my life would go nowhere if I continued like this.

I was 9 years old.

I was alone in a room with screaming adults who seemed to have no interest in calling my parents to come and help me.

My life going nowhere seemed to be a theme. Years later, in seventh grade, I was forced to listen to my teacher berate me for being a terrible kid who didn’t care all because I mislabeled an assignment after working my butt off on makeup work because I was out sick. He reduced me to tears on multiple occasions. He would tell me I would amount to nothing with my attitude.

All I heard was “amount to nothing.” I had no future. I was a bad kid. So many teachers said it. Of course, my parents disagreed. But they’re my parents and they’re biased, you know? Of course they have to say that. But they were in the minority. So they were wrong.

And, to clarify, I’m not saying I was perfect. I definitely wasn’t. I would have meltdowns where I’d hit and scream. I’d say bad words or push other kids down, particularly when I couldn’t find words to express frustration. I would be late with homework assignments when I got overwhelmed. I wasn’t a little angel, but I wasn’t a little devil, either.

Whenever I had a bad incident, I wanted so bad to fix it. I’d work so hard to try and handle my anger better and to find more appropriate ways to express myself. While I embraced the “bad girl” label in junior high school, it was a lie. Ultimately, I wanted to be good.

But it was the little things that made it hard. Even if I hadn’t had a bad incident in months, the teachers would treat me differently. They didn’t have to say it out loud — it was clear they saw me as the bad kid.

During my early years in college, I would’ve chuckled and told you I was a bad kid when I was younger. Then I really started to think about it, and I realized that was wrong. I took a child psychology class where we learned to never tell a child they’re a “bad child.” You may say they’ve done bad things, but they were a good child and they should show it. Where was this attitude when I was a child?

Where were the people telling me I was, and could be, a good girl? My parents were the only ones. I wasn’t a bad kid. I did bad things on occasion, sure.

So there’s a lesson to anyone reading this. Doing bad things doesn’t make you bad. It doesn’t mean you can’t do good things, too. So don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

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