The candidate I had to interview for this week is my high school bully.

This is a bit long, so please bare with me as I go through it. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll just call my bully “Brandon” since it’s not really important to know his real name.<br><br>Back in 2001, I was a shy and overweight teenager starting my senior year. I had moved to a new part of town the summer before senior year started, and while I was well-acquainted with a few people in my grade due to our high school drawing from three different middle schools, I knew very few people outside of that. In my world history class was where I met Brandon. <br><br>At first, he seemed pretty normal. He was a track star and very thin. One day while talking to me, he realized I had a pretty thick “chest voice”. This ultimately led to him realizing I’m transgender. <br><br>I blocked him on social media, but he would always find his way back onto my account and just post nastig things. He even went as far as to log into my account and out me as trans to the rest of my friends and classmates. Suddenly, I was receiving death threats and people I thought were my friends were calling me a freak and telling me I should kill myself. The whole thing was really rough and, of course, I had absolutely no idea how to deal with it. I wasn’t even 18 yet. <br><br>Fast forward a bit, I graduated high school, moved to the city, and started my transition. I had a little bump in the road in the beginning of my transition and ended up getting tuna (a street drug made from wicked and baking soda). I was very sick and had to be hospitalized, but I got through that part. Most of that is a blur.<br><br>A few years later, I got a degree in business management and took a job at a pretty large company in Atlanta. I really love where I work and I’m very good at my job. I’m an associate director now and I’m very proud of myself. I’ve worked hard. I’ve been sober for about nine years and I’ve been living as myself 100% for about 11. Last year, I got the call that my dad had died suddenly in a car accident. I am an only child and my mom had passed away when I was a baby, so I was suddenly alone in this world. <br><br>It’s been rough, but I’m getting through it and I’ve come out on the other side a strong and capable woman. I’ve been with my partner for 5 years and things are good. We bought a house together over the summer and we’re finally getting pretty comfortable. I’m finally coming into my own as a woman and I couldn’t be more proud. I’ve come such a long way and I’ve accomplished so many things.<br><br>On Monday morning, I was sat down by my director for a meeting. He explained that our director of facilities was moving to another office in another state and we were looking for candidates to take over his position. I have never really thought about venturing out to be a director, but I’ve been asked to interview candidates.<br><br>I show up on Wednesday and we have four candidates all in a row. I write down their names and get to work on reading over their resumes. This is where I see it: Brandon. I was shocked, to say the least. I got up and walked to the bathroom to collect myself. I thought I was going to throw up. I splashed some water on my face and got myself together. <br><br>I have to admit, when I saw him, I was livid. I was so angry that I was going to basically send him on his way immediately. I took a few more deep breaths. I sat down in my office chair for a moment and got myself together. I decided to take the high road and just conduct the interview. I’m not sure if I’m going to recommend him or not. I don’t even know if I’m comfortable at all with him in my work place. I do know that I’m going to recommend whoever is best for the job, even if it is him. My job is very important and whoever gets the position really needs to be qualified.