Its name was Marty. It, the thing I had no respect for and despised the most above all. It had neither family nor friends. Marty sprung out of nowhere.
How it did so, I had no idea. I woke up one day, and boom, there it was, mocking me every time I would lay my eyes on it. Marty's grotesque physicality left me embarrassed at times, even when I was around my friends, teachers, and family. I was uncomfortable for days. Marty was annoying and obnoxious, and even lowered my self-esteem.
It became the enemy.
I was still growing when I met Marty for the first time in seventh grade. It besieged itself on me abruptly, and Marty could not seem to understand that it was not welcome in my life. I did not want to be friends. At the time, I did not know why it chose me, of all people, and I grew rather perplexed over its intentions.
I told myself I would try to destroy it in any way I could. I tried covering it up the best I could, but it was too dominant, too powerful for me to handle.
And so the battle began.
As I saw Marty expanding in size, I went along and pierced it the next day. I wanted to squeeze the life out of it, watch it suffer and succumb to my superior forces. Marty was in searing pain, as if begging me to not hurt it anymore. At first, I thought I had won easily. However, in contrast to my fantasy, it took even more days to demolish such an invincible creature.
The more that I had poked or scratched Marty, the more obnoxious it seemed to grow. I apprehended later that if I left it completely alone, it would have slowly stopped annoying me and left me in peace.
That was when I realized the most crucial life lesson I probably would not have learned any other way. Being an 11 year old, I was still trying to make sense of the natural processes of life and what it meant to grow up. As loathsome as Marty's attendance was to me, I learned to change my mind about our time together. When Marty mysteriously left, I was overjoyed, but soon observed that Marty did not only target me, but also my friends.
I did not feel so bad after realizing this.
Marty was life-changing. I see its time with me in a new light now, with Marty as more of a constructive friend. Its short appearance in my life left the deepest mark. This is because at the time, I was not accustomed to handling different, troubling situations until I met Marty. If I ever had a problem, I would tell my parents, or an adult, and they would solve it for me. However, with Marty, it was different.
Marty became the bridge to my maturity. Through this experience, I learned that I am the one who needs to overcome my own problems. Problems are shameless because they happen to everyone. I learned to deal with imperfections and to compromise in order to find solutions for them. I learned that no one is perfect.
I found out that coping with a complication such as Marty was achievable even when I thought it would be the impossible. I was able to coexist with a problem in peace. This brought me to realize that all problems do come with solutions no matter what the circumstances are.
After all, Marty was only a pimple.