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Life Thus Far
by, Ben Compson
The drama that is my life began in 1993, on the 15th of June, in a hospital in Athens, Georgia. My mother named me after a poem by Ben Jonson, although my father probably wanted to name me Ashby, after himself and his father before him. My mother didn’t take my father’s last name, so they decided to give me both of their last names, only hyphenated. Together, they decided to name me Benjamin Garland Compson-Lawson.
Seven or eight months after my birth, my parents filed for a divorce. About two years later, my father was remarried to his close friend Kellye. A short time after that, my sister Emily was born, and my youngest sister, Sophia, a year later. By this time, my father and his new wife had moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and my mother and I were living in Martinsville, Virginia, where we lived with my grandparents, Brenda and Gordon Metz.
My mother and I lived in Martinsville for six months, after that we moved to Abington, Virginia, where we stayed for several years. At the age of five, I began attending kindergarten at Abington Elementary School. The school must not have had a big impact on me since I have no memories of friends, teachers, or anything else about it. A week before Christmas, 1998, we moved back to Martinsville. After winter break was over, I began attending Figsboro Elementary School for the second half of kindergarten. At Figsboro, I met some people that I’m still close friends with to this day.
In June, 1999, when the school year was over, we moved again, this time to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At first, we lived with my mother’s twin sister, Anne, and my newborn cousin Graeme, but after two weeks we found an apartment of our own. In September, at the age of six, I began attending first grade at Wildwood Elementary School, where I met my first best friend, Patrick. But, all good things come to an end, so, rather abruptly, did our friendship when his parents decided halfway through the school year to move to Mississippi. I was devastated, and I never saw him again. After first grade was over, my mother and I moved, yet again, to Martinsville.
From second to fifth grade back at Figsboro Elementary School, I began to have thoughts of depression and suicide. A few times, I tried to act on these thoughts, but decided each time that I was going to miss life too much or that I wasn’t sure there was a heaven or hell. In the middle of fourth grade, I discovered that Figsboro, the school that I and most of my family had attended, was closing at the end of the next school year. So, at the end of fifth grade, my classmates and I left school as the last class to graduate from Figsboro Elementary School. In late August I began attending my first year at the newly converted, Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School, or as it would later come to be known: Hell.
It wasn’t until sixth grade that I began to challenge the oppressive religion of Martinsville that is Christianity, I soon found out the magnitude of my mistake. I first decided I wanted to try Buddhism, thanks to the big influence that was my uncle Chris. Chris is my mother’s youngest brother who has traveled a lot and read lot of books. Because of this, he believes that his way of doing things is the best, and therefore, if I do exactly what he tells me I will be the coolest kid at school. His way of doing things is sadly, not the best. The day after I converted to Buddhism, with no knowledge of what that actually meant, I decided to meditate on the bleachers before class. When someone walked up to me and asked what I was doing, I told them and went on to explain that I was a Buddhist. As one can probably imagine, he did not take kindly to such a difference as not worshipping God. He went as far as to tell me that I was “going to hell.” This was a phrase I heard for the rest of sixth grade, and eventually, I was able to ignore it. But peer pressure should be given great credit since the constant shoving of Bibles in my face along with the many people looking down their noses at me made me give up on Buddhism. I figured I’d be better off if I were a Christian, but I didn’t believe in the same things as Christians and the majority of them at my school were too blissfully ignorant of my favorite subject, science, so I decided to pretend.
Seventh grade was one of the worst years of my life. It was during that year that people picked on me, beat me up, and spread rumors about me. I often talked about moving to California the next year if things got worse. Things did get worse, especially when I decided to announce my decidedly atheistic beliefs to one of my classmates. I thought about moving to California the next year, but I decided that I’d miss what few friends I had. The next year things went smoothly for awhile and then something happened.
In eighth grade I made the biggest mistake of my life, I slept with a girl. The day after it happened, she told everyone. About a week after she’d told her mother, who in turn told my mother, she called us and said that she was pregnant. For the rest of the year, people avoided me, threatened me, and called me “daddy” in a spiteful way. After eighth grade, I decided I wanted to see what it would be like to move in with my father, who’d been living in Orangevale, California.
For the first few weeks, my freshman year at Casa Roble High School was absolutely terrible: the mornings were freezing cold, the days were scorching hot, the entire school was split up into several buildings by an outdoor campus, I knew no one, and on top of it all, I had to ride my bike two miles up and down a hill and traffic filled street to get there. But, then I met Shiann, and my entire prospect of Casa Roble changed. Shiann was one of the funniest, most unique people I’d ever met, and she introduced me to her friend James, who I became close friends with. A few weeks after I met James, I became extremely popular. That was when I realized how much I loved Casa Roble. About halfway through freshman year I met my four closest friends, Tim, Brienna, Ashley, and Paul. A couple of days after winter break began, I flew back to Virginia to spend Christmas with my mother and her fiancé, Kip. I enjoyed spending time with Kip, my mother, and Graeme, my first cousin. A couple of weeks after winter break, my mother called me and told me that my son, Joshua Matthew Wade, was born two weeks earlier, on December 31, 2007. She had only just been told by his mother. In May, I flew back to Virginia for my mother’s marriage to Kip.
After I’d finished my freshman year, with terrible grades in two classes, I returned to Virginia to live with my mother and Kip. A few weeks after I began my sophomore year at Bassett High School, my parents and I went to court for joint custody of Josh. After it was decided that we could spend time with Josh for a few hours at a time on our own terms, we decided with his grandmother that it would be best for us to get him every Sunday. He has proven to be a very sweet, intelligent, loveable child.
As my sophomore year progressed, I gained new friends, and became reacquainted with the old ones. I believe I picked up some extra charisma in California, since more and more people have befriended me each day, and I’ve been in about six different relationships over the course of sophomore year. The teachers in the first semester of the year were extremely tolerant and easy to get along with, which made the work that much easier, although I still got a C in French 3. So that’s how my life has played out, and I’m still not quite sure what my final act will be on this great earth. Whenever it ends, in the last scene, I’ll be sure to turn and face the crowd with a grin.
by, Ben Compson
The drama that is my life began in 1993, on the 15th of June, in a hospital in Athens, Georgia. My mother named me after a poem by Ben Jonson, although my father probably wanted to name me Ashby, after himself and his father before him. My mother didn’t take my father’s last name, so they decided to give me both of their last names, only hyphenated. Together, they decided to name me Benjamin Garland Compson-Lawson.
Seven or eight months after my birth, my parents filed for a divorce. About two years later, my father was remarried to his close friend Kellye. A short time after that, my sister Emily was born, and my youngest sister, Sophia, a year later. By this time, my father and his new wife had moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and my mother and I were living in Martinsville, Virginia, where we lived with my grandparents, Brenda and Gordon Metz.
My mother and I lived in Martinsville for six months, after that we moved to Abington, Virginia, where we stayed for several years. At the age of five, I began attending kindergarten at Abington Elementary School. The school must not have had a big impact on me since I have no memories of friends, teachers, or anything else about it. A week before Christmas, 1998, we moved back to Martinsville. After winter break was over, I began attending Figsboro Elementary School for the second half of kindergarten. At Figsboro, I met some people that I’m still close friends with to this day.
In June, 1999, when the school year was over, we moved again, this time to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At first, we lived with my mother’s twin sister, Anne, and my newborn cousin Graeme, but after two weeks we found an apartment of our own. In September, at the age of six, I began attending first grade at Wildwood Elementary School, where I met my first best friend, Patrick. But, all good things come to an end, so, rather abruptly, did our friendship when his parents decided halfway through the school year to move to Mississippi. I was devastated, and I never saw him again. After first grade was over, my mother and I moved, yet again, to Martinsville.
From second to fifth grade back at Figsboro Elementary School, I began to have thoughts of depression and suicide. A few times, I tried to act on these thoughts, but decided each time that I was going to miss life too much or that I wasn’t sure there was a heaven or hell. In the middle of fourth grade, I discovered that Figsboro, the school that I and most of my family had attended, was closing at the end of the next school year. So, at the end of fifth grade, my classmates and I left school as the last class to graduate from Figsboro Elementary School. In late August I began attending my first year at the newly converted, Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School, or as it would later come to be known: Hell.
It wasn’t until sixth grade that I began to challenge the oppressive religion of Martinsville that is Christianity, I soon found out the magnitude of my mistake. I first decided I wanted to try Buddhism, thanks to the big influence that was my uncle Chris. Chris is my mother’s youngest brother who has traveled a lot and read lot of books. Because of this, he believes that his way of doing things is the best, and therefore, if I do exactly what he tells me I will be the coolest kid at school. His way of doing things is sadly, not the best. The day after I converted to Buddhism, with no knowledge of what that actually meant, I decided to meditate on the bleachers before class. When someone walked up to me and asked what I was doing, I told them and went on to explain that I was a Buddhist. As one can probably imagine, he did not take kindly to such a difference as not worshipping God. He went as far as to tell me that I was “going to hell.” This was a phrase I heard for the rest of sixth grade, and eventually, I was able to ignore it. But peer pressure should be given great credit since the constant shoving of Bibles in my face along with the many people looking down their noses at me made me give up on Buddhism. I figured I’d be better off if I were a Christian, but I didn’t believe in the same things as Christians and the majority of them at my school were too blissfully ignorant of my favorite subject, science, so I decided to pretend.
Seventh grade was one of the worst years of my life. It was during that year that people picked on me, beat me up, and spread rumors about me. I often talked about moving to California the next year if things got worse. Things did get worse, especially when I decided to announce my decidedly atheistic beliefs to one of my classmates. I thought about moving to California the next year, but I decided that I’d miss what few friends I had. The next year things went smoothly for awhile and then something happened.
In eighth grade I made the biggest mistake of my life, I slept with a girl. The day after it happened, she told everyone. About a week after she’d told her mother, who in turn told my mother, she called us and said that she was pregnant. For the rest of the year, people avoided me, threatened me, and called me “daddy” in a spiteful way. After eighth grade, I decided I wanted to see what it would be like to move in with my father, who’d been living in Orangevale, California.
For the first few weeks, my freshman year at Casa Roble High School was absolutely terrible: the mornings were freezing cold, the days were scorching hot, the entire school was split up into several buildings by an outdoor campus, I knew no one, and on top of it all, I had to ride my bike two miles up and down a hill and traffic filled street to get there. But, then I met Shiann, and my entire prospect of Casa Roble changed. Shiann was one of the funniest, most unique people I’d ever met, and she introduced me to her friend James, who I became close friends with. A few weeks after I met James, I became extremely popular. That was when I realized how much I loved Casa Roble. About halfway through freshman year I met my four closest friends, Tim, Brienna, Ashley, and Paul. A couple of days after winter break began, I flew back to Virginia to spend Christmas with my mother and her fiancé, Kip. I enjoyed spending time with Kip, my mother, and Graeme, my first cousin. A couple of weeks after winter break, my mother called me and told me that my son, Joshua Matthew Wade, was born two weeks earlier, on December 31, 2007. She had only just been told by his mother. In May, I flew back to Virginia for my mother’s marriage to Kip.
After I’d finished my freshman year, with terrible grades in two classes, I returned to Virginia to live with my mother and Kip. A few weeks after I began my sophomore year at Bassett High School, my parents and I went to court for joint custody of Josh. After it was decided that we could spend time with Josh for a few hours at a time on our own terms, we decided with his grandmother that it would be best for us to get him every Sunday. He has proven to be a very sweet, intelligent, loveable child.
As my sophomore year progressed, I gained new friends, and became reacquainted with the old ones. I believe I picked up some extra charisma in California, since more and more people have befriended me each day, and I’ve been in about six different relationships over the course of sophomore year. The teachers in the first semester of the year were extremely tolerant and easy to get along with, which made the work that much easier, although I still got a C in French 3. So that’s how my life has played out, and I’m still not quite sure what my final act will be on this great earth. Whenever it ends, in the last scene, I’ll be sure to turn and face the crowd with a grin.
