Kid Fears

I think I'm still recovering from middle school, and I left 8th grade ten years ago. I read an article recently that called us the "Thin-skinned Generation", that we can't take criticism, or failure, or rejection so we go through life pretending that nothing really matters so our hopes won't get up only to be shot down. I know I suffer from this to a degree, and I still blame Blue Ridge Middle School for most of it. Yeah you Bulldogs, I blame you.
I know there are people who hate me, some who used to be friends who now hate me, and I've become ok with that. I know there are people who won't forgive me, and while I've offered my forgiveness there's nothing more I can do. The people who can say the worst things about me are often the very same people who can say the best things too, and that I guess is the price one pays for close friendships. That price has always been worth it, in my opinion.
But those fears that exist all these years later that still plague me--that thin-skinnedness and/or awkwardness--does that ever go away? Like this paralyzing fear of loneliness; is that more a product of where I am in life, or in who I am? Rhetorical? I think so. It's not a fear of living alone or being alone, it's a fear of staying alone. We all have this intense desire to know and be known, is it ever fulfilled?
Used up my rhetorical question quota for the day and it's only 1pm.
I hate it when I do that.