Back when I was a junior high school student, I was not like everyone.

I was not into pop music and I actually found some of their games boring and silly. But, I was afraid I would be left alone. 

In every PE class, I worried that when everyone had paired up, I would be the only one standing there and could only exercise with my teacher. I was not good at singing and had no sense of fashion. I was 13 and was super nice because people I grew up with were nice and simple people. I pretended to be enjoying hanging out with cool kids, breaking rules, bullying others and thought I would be bullied if I didn't do it.

I was never happy. They still made fun of me even after I pretend to be them. 

Some might think I were their friend, I never went to see single one of them after junior high was over. 

The whole summer holiday, I embraced myself in finding a solution to fight back. I became a rather mean and cynical person in the next few years. I was able to fight back anyone who tried to make fun of me. But it hurt a lot of people.

Until recently, I finally became a stronger and more mature person. People's judgement won't actually bother me anymore and I feel more for people who got bullied than others who hadn't been bullied. 

 

I'd like to share some of my thoughts.

you'd think with age it stops, bullies would stop hitting you calling you names and such and in a way for a while it did. untill two days ago when a guy i came out to two years ago cuz i had a crush on him called me ne night and told me to meet with him the other day because he would like to how to put it, be gay with me. and so i did i went over to his place only to find him calling his friend and gaining on me with a gun, stealing my phone, cash emptying my creit card after filming me doing a full blown im gay confession and blackmailing me to give hem money so they wont post it. it is different for me i live in the arab world where being gay is a crime i am tired i am a mess a useless pile of meat who is too shy too insecure too every demeaning thing you can think of because of what i have been subjected to and now this i would end my life right now if it wasnt for my mom who raised me all by herself since i was 4, she doesnt deserve a dead son nor a gay son for that matter she will accept i know it but she will be devastated and sad and will blame herself while it is not her fault. i dont want to make my terminally ill mother sad that is not how i should repay her oh how i long to be able to make her happy by marrying a wife and having kids but now i live in continuous fear of exposure andthats not the worst part, you do and say stupid things under gunpoint i told them that the first guy ive been with was my brother i was eleven and he was a year and a couple of month older than me he didnt know better we were just experimenting but how would that appear to my mom if she found out.

im 22 years old and not one days goes by without resenting myself - thank you bullies

I'm a 35 year old survivor. I was bullied every day for over 2 years when I was in middle school. We were 30 in class, not all of my classmates bullied me, but they never helped and they called me names just to fit in with the bullies. I got beat up, almost every day. I had to hide the bruises from my family, and when they asked I told them I got them playing. I was not ready to tell anyone. I did not want my parents to suffer. I tried telling my teachers, but did not care, the principal did not care either. I tried telling them but they would not listen. On my last year of middle school, in mid October, the two kids that bullied me pulled a knife in the middle of a computer class, he said "if you don't do what I say, we'll cut your throat". While one of them pulled an eraser from his pocket and told me to eat it, the other one kept switching the knife between my throat and my wrist. No one around us did anything. No one told the teacher. No one told them to stop. They just looked at us and laughed. I decided to tell the teachers, and with my class mates it made it worse. They said that I was a snitch and a coward. The teachers didn't want to listen to the story and they sent us to see the principal. At first, his decision was to kick the three of us out of school for a week for fighting. When my parents stormed into his office to find out what happened, he decided to kick out one of the two kids out for a week and his friend 3 days. A week for one of them and three days for the other one after they threatened somebody with a knife in the middle of a class. 

The next day, the principal called me to his office to tell me that if I beat up the bullies he would buy me lunch. I think I didn't mention that the principal was a priest. Yes, I attended a private catholic school, not some school in the ghetto. And yes, the principal, a priest told me to beat up the kids. I didn't do it. I didn't go to the police. Why you may think, well, if just by telling the teacher I got the rest of the class against me, what could happen if I told the police? I would probably be dead by now. 

Things got better for a week, but after a while it was all the same, I was cornered every day by the two guys and some of their friends, I was beat up almost every day. I had no one to trust. Only my family. No friends or anyone to protect me in school. 

Did I think about ending it all? Of course. I didn't think about becoming a school shooter, I live in Spain, we don't have such a gun culture like in the US. For two years and some after that I thought I was the scum of the earth, that's how they made me feel. Why live? why go through life like this? My family told me that it was going to get better. Movies told me the same. But I didn't see it. Then why did I continue living? Why didn't I just find a weapon and kill the bully? Because that would have ruined not only my life but my family's life. How did I make it though, I told my self, just keep going, prove them wrong, show the world you are not a failure like they tell you, that's the best revenge, keep living and be happy. Sounds stupid, but that's what kept me alive. I wanted to piss them off by being happy and alive. I so far I've done it. 

I have seen some of my school mates years after. We've gone out for drinks, and we've had fun. Some of them apologized and told me they were sorry for what they did. I accepted their apology. I forgive, but I don't forget. And it felt great looking in their eyes and saying "You know what? f**k you, I'm alive, and I'm happy". The look on their face was priceless. To this day, I haven't seen the two bullies, I know they are alive and at least one of them lives in the same city as me. What would I do if we see each other. I've thought about it a few times. Yes for years the thought of revenge crossed my mind. More than once. Slow and painful revenge. But then I think, for what? is it going to restore anything? is it going to make me feel better? No, it's only going to ruin my life. Let life take it's course. Maybe one day they will realize what they did. Maybe they already know and it's eating them inside. Maybe they don't care and feel proud of it. The truth is, I don't care. I have my life now. I'm happy, I'm married and all of that is in the past. It has made me who I am, and in some strange way, I think I am a better person. 

I know that when you are bullied, nothing is going to make you feel better. There is no shortcut. But life goes on, and for as much as someone tells you the opposite, everybody counts. You mean something to somebody, your family, the friends that you might not know you have. There is always someone that cares for you, and that makes life worth living, because if you become a school shooter, or you decide to end it all, the pain you are going to cause your loved ones is going to be greater than the one you feel. 

Bullies leave scars. Physical and mental. But scars are just a reminder of who we are. As they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Just keep going, prove the world wrong, that's the best revenge. 

Ps: I was bullied for no reason. I was a normal kid. The only thing that made me different was that I wore glasses and I was skinny. That's all. I was just a target like anyone could have been. 

Hi my name is Calle. Today i´m 17 years old and live in Gothenburg, Sweden. nearly my Whole life i have been bullied by other kids. Mostly because i have something called "dyslexia". This makes it harder for me to learn to write, spell, grammar and reading. From second grade forward until ninth grade. Not all the time but never any long periods without it. Now i just started at high school and now i´m not being bullied but i don´t really have any friends either. The only reason why i´m still here is because of my family. I could/can´t make them have to bury me. So now i´m trying my best to live on.

To you who read this. I don't say thats it isn't hard or tough going to school when you being bullied. But try to look back probably you have a family who cares, so talk with them. thats my best advise.

Who am I? I am the shy girl who wears cute sweaters and hides behind a book. I am the smart kid who got almost everything right in class. I am the lazy kid who hates exercise and would rather snuggle her cat all day rather than go places. I was a victim. I was bullied ever since I started 5th grade. You see, since I was so shy, it was hard for me to make friends. The few friends I did have were my confidants, my go to gals, if you will. Most came and went, but some were special. Take Tiffany for instance. We had been friends ever since kindergarten when I saw her crying under a table and cheered her up with a bad cookie joke. In 5th grade, she started hanging out with Mackenzie. Mackenzie was one of my bullies. She would always laugh at me and call me names. I let most of it roll off my back. However, I could tell that I had lost Tiffany. The next year we lost contact. Then came Anna. She was my best friend since third grade. She was the first person to actually talk to me. She became like my sister, and is probably the reason that I am bi-curious now. However, (I say that a lot... (=~=") she found out one of my secrets and then she bailed on me. The only friends I have now are Lauren, her sister Jackie, and Milah. I lost contact with Milah though, and Lauren and Jackie moved to Florida. Now this isn't a "oh no, pity me! I have no friends :(" story. No, this goes deeper than that. In 6th grade, I started getting bullied. I had moved schools, and most of the kids didn't want to be there. One girl in particular seemed to really dislike me. Kia (no joke that's actually her name) made it a point to tease me daily. I had nobody there for me except Christine, and she was iffy. In 7th grade, school went downhill. They were falling into the no child left behind trap, and us nerds were suffering. The bullying hadn't stopped either. Finally, I had had enough. Over Christmas break, I researched online homeschools. I moved to Connections Academy, and life looked like it was turning up roses for me. But then, my world took a tumble. My mother was in the hospital, and dad wasn't saying why. Turns out, he wanted a divorce, and told her so. She freaked and OD'd on her pain meds. She has had 7 back surgeries, so she has a lot of pain. Anyhow, once she recovered, my dad moved to an apartment. We lived there for about a year and a half part time untill July. Then we moved to a house in Aurora. Now I have two homes and my parents are divorced. About 6 months later, I began hearing voices in my head. I even made friends with them. Except Tana. She reminded me of everything I hated about myself. About how I was overweight, and friendless, and shy, and lazy, and how nobody liked me. About how they just tolerated me. I started cutting. I just wanted to control something. I felt like I had deserved it. But I never wanted to die. No, I had way too much planned for me to die now. I wanted to be the greatest microbiologist ever. I wanted to find the cure for cancer. I wanted to find a noninvasive cure for scoliosis, so I could make sure that other teens with scoliosis like me don't need to go through surgery. I got off topic again... :T... Anyway, I only cut for a few days before someone found out and I stopped.I was always careful to cover my wrists, but I think that I wanted someone to see, for someone to help me. I often catch myself scratching my wrists when I have had a particularly bad day though. But that brings me to where I am now. Sitting on my bed with another bout of insomnia. Who am I? I am the girl who isn't afraid to tell a bunch of complete strangers her life story. I am the girl who is a nerd, and proud of it. I am the girl with the crazy fashion sense, and still somehow manages to pull it off. I am a loner. I am the girl who likes to sit in the dark and watch music videos. I am the girl with voices in her head. I am the 8th grader who is the youngest in her class. I am Amanda Lee, and I'm proud of it. Now the real question is, who are you?

I was the quiet kid who sat alone and never spoke.  I didn't do anything to anybody but the other kids would call me names and throw things at me, my very first year of secondary school was a nightmare that just continued.  I'm lucky in that I had a few friends, we were a bunch of misfits but we had each other and thats all that mattered.  I wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for them they saw me at my lowest and were there to try cheer me up.

I turned to self harm when I was 12 years old because I felt I had no one else to turn to, my parents would have listened but I was always too scared to talk and put into words the way I felt, I blocked those out who tried to help.  To most teachers I faded too easily into the background.

Because I was quiet, no because I am quiet I am assumed to be rude and thought to be weird when the truth is speaking up and talking is terrifying for me.

On that very first day of secondary school if someone had come over and said hi and been nice I think things would have been a lot different.  What happened through my school years still affects me to this day.  People still assume the same things of me now though it's easier and people are generally more understanding, I have started seeking help for my problems and have recently went through cognitive behavioural therapy and started taking anti-depressants for social anxiety and depression.

I never let anything beat me I still went to school and never missed a day because of anxiety and fear and faced it all head on even when I was a quivering mess inside.  The bullies and other people in my life always made me feel that being quiet is wrong and I must have been some weirdo freak if they thought I was, I felt so alone.  The truth is though that I wasn't alone there are other people like me and being quiet is not wrong, this is only something that I have learnt this year!

To those kids, the quiet ones, like me, who are terrified to talk and it is affecting their lives as much as it did mine I urge you to seek help for it now so things will be easier later in life when that isn't a struggle you have to face.  The sad thing is we become targets for bullies who pick out anyone different, just don't let these things beat you, it can be fixed and school is not forever.  There are always struggles in life but this one can be beaten.

To others out there reading this if there is a kid in your class who always sits by themselves and doesn't talk so you don't bother with them be nice to them smile.  Maybe start a conversation and be understanding if they find that difficult it might make their day or maybe make them feel for that moment that they are worth something more than just a wallflower.

In fifth grade, I moved to a brand new state, which I had never done before. I had never even been to a different school. I went to a college prep school (the third school I went to because of bullying, but that isn't the important part) and I was bullied like never before. I was still in fifth grade; the girls always made fun of me because I didn't shave my legs yet, a boy would purposefully pick his scabs so he could rub blood on me, and I was constantly being beat up. I never told anyone about it because the boys who beat me up told me that if I told anyone they would kill me. After six months of enduring this torture, it was finally summer. The next school year I went to a new school in which I wasn't bullied physically, but this time emotionally and psychologically. The whole year was filled with people picking on me, telling me they were my friends then calling me ugly, fat, and stupid… The only reason I stayed was because my sister wanted to graduate there (she was a junior at the time). 

I had to go through that for a full year and every day I would come home secretly crying. The next year I thought would be better (this was a k-12 school). For another three months, I was bullied even worse. One of my sisters was already in college and our old house wasn't sold yet so we had no money. I didn't have nice clothes, I went from scrawny to fat, and the bullying was now emotional and physical. Anyways, during that three months I started cutting myself (It has been over a year and the scars haven't healed) and started having suicidal thoughts. I had no friends and was absolutely depressed. Early November of 2012 I took 15 allergy pills and hoped to never wake up. I didn't go to sleep, though, and instead started having scary hallucinations. The next day I couldn't hold anything because I was dropping anything I tried to get a grip on and I was throwing up like crazy. I ended up having to get my stomach pumped at the ER.

My mom got me into therapy, but it didn't help. I was still cutting, and people still bullied me, even though they knew I tried to kill myself. 2 weeks after trying to kill myself the first time, I cut myself the vertical way (deadly way) and lost a lot of blood. I had to go to the ER and get stitches when my mom found me. I was taken out of school for a week. 

After that, I talked to my principal and teachers about what had happened. We had a seminar on bullying, and most of the people who had harassed me were expelled. I got a better therapist and now I am very happy. I am at a healthy weight and I am one of the most popular girls in school; not because I am mean or gorgeous, but because I am nice and people can talk to me. I hope everyone can have a happy ending like me.

My name is Holly i live in New Zealand. When i was 11 my family moved towns. I had to start a new school and make new friends. I didnt think it was going to be hard, i had loads of friends at my old school. I was wrong, from day one i was that weirdo new girl. I did everything wrong according to these kids. Played the wrong sports, wore my hat the wrong way, And it wasnt like i was from another country, my home town was only 15 mins away. I did make a few friends but that didnt help anything. When i started highschool it just got worse. There were so many more students and i was still considered an outcast. The friends i had made at intermediate were at other schools. I had one friend. Over those 5 years i was bullied. I had gained weight as i had become and emotional eater. I was pushed into gardens between classes because i wasnt "using the bus lane" i had ham thrown at me because "i was a pigs cousin" i was spat on. Students were switched out of my class because of the way i was treated but that didnt stop them. My only friends were those who were rejected like me. We were all picked on and we became great friends though the struggle, we never really talked about the bullying but we all knew how we came together. When high school finished i went on to do an art degree. I made friends and everyone loved me and embraced me. I came into my own, i wouldnt let anyone hurt me again. I'm 25 now. I have the best friends in the world. Im quirky and weird, BUT thats what makes me AWESOME. No one messes with me anymore, they know i wont stand for it. Those who bullied me became drug addicts, Teenage single mothers. And now, when i see bullying in public around me, i intervene. Because someone has to stand up for that kid, boost there confidence and show them the matter.

I have been bullied for the last 13 years- but I'm not a kid! I am an adult. Bullying takes many forms- look up Organized Stalking and you will get an idea how this type of crime affects it's targets, in an organized, systematic way. Unlike bullying , where the bullies target kids more openly- organized stalking is done very sutely. Their goal is to drive their target crazy by a 24 hour harassment campaign. Reporting about this, makes one seem delusiinal and paronoid. My bullying happens when 30 people follow me into a store , and covertly brush up against me, and then blame me- and report me to the manager- or cut me off consistany on the roads , tailgate me, or brake into my apartment and move things around ever so slightly- For 13 years I have been living with this- the police and govt officials are familiar with this crime, yet will not do anything about it. Can you help me bring awareness to this crime? Sandy

My daughter, a concerned mother, wrote this last night and shared with everyone on Facebook: "I'd rather have a parent be overly concerned for our children then not concerned at all." -Principal at my son's school after our conversation / I want to thank my family for showing so much love and support for my beautiful little boy my son. My son has experienced bullying. Yes, even at 7 years old and in 2nd grade, bullying exists. We as parents need to teach our children that every single one of us has value. And that we need to respect one another. Love and ...take care of one another. Even if we are different and don't always agree or view things in the same way. My mom always taught us, "If you're not going to say anything nice, don't say it at all." Words can be pretty hurtful, and although as adults, we have learned to have thicker skins, children, alot of times, because of their innocence don't understand or know how to cope with mean words, insults, or other physical or mental abuse. We are their angels. We are their protectors. We have to be better at standing up for them and helping them find their voice and stand up for themselves and others. Speak to your child. Let them know that it is ok to tell their teacher, their parents, their aunts or uncles or anyone else that someone is mistreating them. Show love and compassion. We saw changes in my son. He didn't want to go to school. He would come home with scratches, or a light bruise on his leg. We were lucky to have caught it on time and that his teachers cared and loved him enough to call us when they noticed things with him were not quite the same. I directly spoke to his principle, with his grandma Coco by my side, his father spoke to his teachers and things got resolved rather quick. My son likes going to school now and understands the importance of speaking up. He has also learned that a bully is not your friend. Even if they promise to stop hitting you. I will not sweep this under the rug. It is a very serious and important thing affecting so many children, and adolescents. We have to eliminate it. I share this with you because I care. Because I love my son. Because I love our children...I love your children. If you are a parent, please watch this with your child as I watched it with mine. I am grateful that my brother loves my son so much that he gave us a copy and personally took a copy to the principle at my son' school when he found out what my son had experienced. There is always hope. Together, we can make a difference. Together we can help save a childs life. KEEP SPREADING THE LOVE.