The worst thing I ever did to 'fit in', was to go along with the prevailing mentality of my grade 3 classmates in our rural public school. There was a girl my own age who was very shy and reeked of urine all the time. At recess, she would peel a banana, throw away the banana but would eat the yellow banana peel instead. Everyone made fun of her and I purposely shunned her because I didn't want anyone to see me expressing the compassion I felt for her.
She lived on a farm down the road from our's which was located half way down a steep hill leading into a deep valley with a river flowing through the bottom of it. One Saturday morning while at home practicing at her piano, a fully-loaded dump truck lost control while coming down that hill that led to the river, went down into the ditch then back up the other side and into their back yard, then ran into their wood frame house and crashed right through their living room, killing my school mate when she was pinned against the wall by her piano when the truck collided with it and pushed it up against the far wall.
Never again did I follow the crowd and never again did I ever attempt to fit in.
