Dear band teacher,
The day you kicked me out of band trip because I was schizophrenic, I really thought about killing myself because you hated me. You said you were trying to protect the group, but I was just a sick 17 year old kid who wanted to go with my friends.
My friends even tried to sign a petition to help me get to this trip, but you snatched this paper away from my friends when they did so.
I’m thinking about this now- it’s been more than 8 years since you rejected me from this band trip. I will never forget it, but you have made me realize that this band trip was not even worth it.
I hope you realize that since I got rejected from this band trip for just having schizophrenia, I have been having self-esteem issues that spanned years. I no longer see myself as valuable and I no longer love myself because I simply don’t trust people like you anymore.
Still I hope to have some self-esteem, but thank you for giving me a chance to look at myself more. You may have rejected me from this trip, but I just got accepted to a prestigious university. I plan to do internships in psychology/special education and even go further onto doing my PHD. That, I guess, is something you never expected from a schizophrenic.
Last time I met you at my university, you said you still remember me. I was going to ask you if you still remember kicking me out of the trip, but I didn’t say it for the sake of your band students. I didn’t want to ruin your reputation and cause confusion. I could have emailed the board of education to seek for your downfall, but I didn’t. I hope you learned a valuable lesson from this- that is, to never presume someone is dangerous by their mental illness. I believe in second chances, and maybe you have realized that the choice you made wasn’t the best one.
I just want the best for you and for your precious band students. I hope your school remains as one of the top schools for band and choir. I truly enjoyed my time in the choir and I loved being part of this school. Thank you for teaching me that high school isn’t everything- I joined choir in university and I really enjoyed it.
Sincerely,
your student