What did I do to deserve this? Do I make promises, fully intending not to follow through? Do I leave people who depend on me waiting for information it would take me no more than a minute to give them? Do I deliberately make friends feel guilty for not being able to do things that I could just as easily ask someone better suited and with more free time on their hands to do?

I guess I must be an undependable, unreliable, inconsiderate, demanding person. That’s the only reason I can think of. Why else would all these things come bending back in my direction? What else would account for the fact that I sometimes get treated like a wind-up toy (instead of the real robot with feelings that I am)?

When I grew up, I thought the bullying was over. I thought people in the real world treated each other with respect. I thought high school mentality was left behind in, you know, high school. Boy was I wrong.

And another thing. When the instruction says “tear here,” arrow and all, why does the bag turn to shreds in my hands when I try to do exactly that? Is that what I deserve for some horrible thing I’ve done that I can’t even remember? It must be, because I really can’t remember doing it, whatever it was.