Excerpt From "Learning To Sing" on Dr. Phil's Website

An excerpt from Clay's book, "Learning To Sing, Hearing The Music In Your Life", is on Dr. Phil's website. The excerpt, which is from Chapter 5, Find Your Voice, in the book, is in the "Dr. Phil's Advise" section of the website and then in the "Parenting" information of this section.

Before the excerpt from the book, Dr. Phil says,

Clay Aiken got picked on and bullied as a kid, but found his gift, embraced it and changed the experience of his life. He shares his story on the show, and in his book, Learning to Sing.

A portion of Chapter 5, which is quoted on the website is as follows:

Those boys learned pretty quickly that I wasn't going to fight back and I wasn't going to tattle on them. The nicer I was, the bigger the target on my forehead. The high road left me defenseless. And the mockery only got worse.
"Retard."
"Fag."
"Wimp."
"Dork."
"Four eyes."
"Loser."
I got it all. But the thing is, the more I took it, the less I cared. Being harassed became a part of my day, and I accepted it.

I know it sounds sad now, looking back, but at the time I wasn't analyzing it. I was just living my life. I think the bullying helped me figure out at an early age that stuff is going to happen to you that you wish wouldn't. People are going to treat you badly, and ultimately that is out of your control.

"Just let it roll off," my mom would say. And I did. Because even as a kid, I knew the other option wasn't for me. I was not going to hurt somebody else.

Clay was on Dr. Phil's show in April 2005 on a segment which talked about "Bullying".