High school isn’t an easy time. Everyone is kind of learning what they’re all about, cliques and social pressures can make life difficult, and then there’s the rejection. This is what hurts most, especially when it happens in a humiliating way, on video, in front of a crowd.
What was high school like for you?
It’s an awkward time: you’re too old to feel like a carefree child, but you don’t have nearly enough freedom to feel like an adult. Really, it’s all about just hanging on until you’re old enough for college.
Rejection is the worst.
Most people develop the ability to talk to their love interest. But in high school, when emotions are at their most frail, things inevitably get awkward — not to mention humiliating.
This story takes us to Gray, Louisiana.
It starts out as a story of humiliating and bullying. But eventually, it takes an amazing turn. Some of the photos here were captured on grainy, portrait-oriented phone videos, but the story more than makes up for the picture quality.
Here’s Dakota Nelton.
This high school sophomore admits that he isn’t one of the cool kids. But he wanted to ask a girl out to the homecoming dance, and he gathered the courage to do so.
She said no.
She did nothing wrong — it’s totally fine to say no to someone you aren’t interested in — but the setting Dakota chose for his romantic gesture wound up working against him.
He asked her in a crowded hallway.
His gesture fell flat when she said no. Classmates laughed, jeered and mocked Dakota. They even trampled all over his homemade poster that he’d presented to his classmate.
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He described his feelings.
“It was a pretty tough moment, just standing in a small circle, with that small shake of the head…and you’ve just got to find your way out of that circle,” he told a local reporter.
Dakota was devastated.
Embarrassed and humiliated, he tried to move on. Over the weekend though, unbeknownst to him, a group of kind classmates was working behind the scenes to give him something he’d never forget.
On Monday, Dakota returned to school.
After the video of Dakota’s rejection had made the rounds on social media, a group of girls at the school decided to help turn things around for him. “We’re going to make sure he’s on the dance floor dancing!” one of them told a reporter.
Each girl made a sign.
When Dakota walked through the halls, each of the group of girls — thirteen in all! — greeted him with a sign asking him out to the big homecoming dance.
Each girl asked him out.
“Let’s get a group of girls together and ask him, to show him that he’s loved and worthy,” one of the girls said. “He deserves to be going to homecoming with somebody.”
Dakota posed with the girls.
After his embarassment the week prior, this was a shot in the arm for Dakota. “I felt like one of the popular kids in the school, which I’m really not,” he said.
He got his homecoming dance after all.
…with not just one, or two, but thirteen girls. “It’s weird having a first date with so many girls at once,” he nervously admitted during his dance with one of the girls.
It’s a great story.
High school kids certainly can be cruel. We saw that with Dakota’s initial experience. But they can also be empathetic and kind, as demonstrated by the response. It’s certainly made Dakota’s sophomore year memorable.
Things worked out for Dakota.
From no date to thirteen dates, Dakota is in a better place than he was.
Speaking of this, let’s talk high school: what was the kindest gesture you saw during these years of your life?
Check out this video segment detailing Dakota’s story.