Reflection 2

Looking back on my experiences from Battle School, I can now see that the administration was trying to isolate me from the start. In fact, the isolation started even BEFORE I got to Battle School! On the transit ride up, Graff complimented me on my knowledge of space while ridiculing another boy on their lack thereof of that same knowledge. This set me up for weeks of bullying from my fellow launchies. They also removed me from my launchy group once I started being able to confide in my friend Alai. What buggers... In the end, I am thankful for the negative and destructive influence that they had on my life. If Graff and Anderson and Mazer and all of the other heartless adults hadn't set me up for "success" in defeating the buggers, someone else would have. Someone else would have commanded troops in Battle, no doubt less skillfully than I, and would have sacrificed the lives of thousands more troops. Also, once that commander won the war, he/she would not have had the heart to find a home for the species he had just (unknowingly) destroyed.