Member-only story
I’m Sorry for Throat-Punching You
I throat-punched a junior high kid. And it felt really good.
Now, mind you, this was over 30 years ago and I was in Jr. High myself. And I only throat-punched him because he was head and shoulders taller than me and that’s all the further my swing would reach.
And he had it coming. Or, at least, I thought he did. Somebody on that trampoline hit me with a snowball point blank. And it hurt.
And Mike seemed the likely culprit. Yeah, I knew his name. He was my friend. Not a close friend, mind you. But closer than “I feel like tonight’s a good night to throat-punch you on a trampoline during church youth group.”
But it felt good.
It landed nicely.
Some other kid yelled at us, “Stop it, guys!”
Mike had to work to catch his breath.
I felt bad about that. I didn’t really mean to hurt my friend. But I was really angry about that snowball.
Up until that point, I hadn’t punched anybody like that except maybe one of my brothers. And that didn’t usually end well. (Usually, because I got hit back. Or worse yet, one of our parents got involved.)
And looking back? Yeah, I know, a bunch of jr. high kids on a trampoline in the winter wasn’t a great starting point. How in the…
