Stereotypes: A Short Story

We all have those moments where we feel that the world is against us, and we wonder why all of this is only happening to us. I remember a particular moment in my life when I was feeling stressed by something out of my control and felt like I was all alone in my struggle. It was November of my freshman year of high school and I was sitting in my world history class. My teacher was Mr. Fuchs, who had told us in September about how to correctly pronounce his name. He would proudly tell us that it was the German word for fox, but unfortunately it looked very close to the word most commonly seen scribbled on bathroom stalls and bus seats. Halfway through another boring lecture about India’s culture, the class was interrupted when Mr. Fuchs’s classroom phone rang. The

I gave him a fake smile as I turned around and walked down the left hallway, while on the inside I was wallowing in self-deprecation.
How could I be such an idiot?
It had only been two minutes since the phone call, but it felt like an hour. I began to panic after I walked down every hallway that I could find on both floors and still had no luck in finding the nurse’s office. I was convinced that this office did not exist and that all my efforts in finding it would be for nothing. I was embarrassed about asking for help because I did not want to feel like a little kid. Even though I was still thirteen, one of the youngest in my grade, I was 5’11” and in high school, so everyone expected me to act like an adult.
Adults solve their own problems.
At this point I was in front of the main office. I stalled outside the door wondering if I should go in. I peered in at the blonde woman at the front desk, who was looking down at some papers. After much loitering, I stepped in and approached her. I asked her if she could tell me where the nurse’s office was. She looked up at me with her tired eyes and directed me to the end of the hallway on the