12 | OutBoise Magazine | NEWS
Jen Potcher
“I was given a beautiful
plastic horse from my granny.
It was a Clydesdale from Bush
Gardens. I was so proud of it,
that I took it to school with me
and carried it around all day.
I’d proudly place it on whatever desk in whatever class I
was sitting in.
What followed, I will never
understand. From that day
on I was mercilessly mocked.
I was given the nickname
“pony” by several people
in my class...Not for a good
reason. They mocked me for
years with that name. Some
of them might be reading this
now. It didn’t matter what I
did, I never seemed to get
out of that stigma of not
being one of the “normal”
kids. That stuck with me for a
long time and for a long time
made me afraid to really be
myself.
There were a lot of other
things about me that people
made fun of, but that is one
that sticks strong in my memory. I haven’t told that story
in years, but I think it’s a small
piece of the puzzle as to why
I do what I do. I know what
it’s like to b