Being Myself Anonymous

At Waffle House, the waiter asks where I go and I reply, “Brookstone.” He scoffs, “Heh, the rich kid private school.”By reputation, Brookstone is full of kids that grew up with cotillion manners, groomed for debutante balls, settled in gated communities. Transferring in, I thought I would be too different as a scholarship kid.

Eighth grade year was when my eating disorder hit, but I thought of it then as part of the preparations necessary for Brookstone. Changing myself was my preemptive strike.

It didn’t take long at school for me to realize I had gone about it all wrong. If I was scared of how others would judge me, being skinny was not any answer. Lessons from summers at the Springer Theatre Academy came to mind. We had been taught to be bold as ourselves, to claim our unabashed identities, to be colorful and uplifting. Thus, it was perfect scripting that Springer would be the place that helped me close the chapter of that struggle in my life.

The summer before tenth grade, the Springer Theatre Academy started the Ron Anderson Kindness Grant, offering money initiatives that spread kindness. My friend Bekah and I won with our proposal of hosting an Eating Disorders Awareness event. We were both on shaky paths to recovery, and...