Back in my 5th grade, I had this girl, she became my best friend. We spend time together, eat together, and whenever we walk, we hold hands together. That's how close we are. It's like we're twins, from another family. We keep on sending letters to each other. But when we reached 6th grade. Everything has changed. We were not classmates anymore, but we're still best friends. Or at least we used to be. Before we entered 6th grade. We made a promise to each other, that what ever happens to us, we're still gonna be best friends, forever. I promised the same to her. 

When we reached 6th grade, I met this girl. She's awesome. And she's been there for me when my 5th grade best friend sabotage our promises to each other. I keep on waiting in our meeting spots everyday, because it's our promise. That we're gonna be still best friends. But one day, she didn't showed up, until she forgot that we were friends. 

That hurts. She really forgot. When I tried to clear things out. She always ignore me, like I don't exist. Now I'm on senior high school. We're friends when I was 11 years old. Now I am 16, and i'm in senior high school. We're still not okay.

In 4th grade I grew close with a boy who soon became one of my closest friends. We did a lot of things together, including heckle the same little girl that passed by our lunch table every day. We were loud and clear to the people around us and it was obvious that the girl heard, but she would never turn her head to look. After this continued for a while, one day a teacher came to us wondering y the little girl that sat across the cafe was crying and upset about what we said to her. We had little response to her questions. It was then i realized what i was doing. How i had made her feel and how i had the power to  stop it. It was when i realized that those with the ability to make a difference have the responsibility to do so. We immediately stopped our cruel acts and appologized. Suprisingly to us, the girl accepted our appology and stopped her tears. Never before had i seen such courage from an 8 year old peer.

Many many years have past since this happened. And due to changes in my life I have made many friends with very nice people. Over the years I had taken the time to talk to and compliment the nice, smart, and beautiful young woman the girl has grown up to be. It haunts me every day that I took part in this act. Throughout our high school years my friend and i have grown seperate ways, but we always happened to see each other commonly when we would help out in the special needs classroom at our school almost everyday.

it's been a while since i have seen this girl. Someday i hope to see her again and gain the courage to appologize for what we said to her. No matter if she remembers it or not, this girl has changed my life for the good. Its taken me this long to realize it, but maybe it's because of her i now feel the need to help those less fortunate and act anytime i see someone mistreat another. I owe her every ounce of love and kindness in my body. I've never been so sorry. Sometimes much good can overpower acts of such evil. 

All i can say to my listeners is that stuff may haunt u forever from both sides of the equation. And even though we are all capable of love, forgiveness and good is only held in the hands of the victim, never the vilian. The villian can only beg that the victim is forgiving enough to share their good to those who are most cruel. To the little girl that went to my school that year, in want to say thank u for your forgiveness and the lessons u have taught me all these years. You will always be part of me. Much love.

In Jr. high, i wasn't the nicest kid. High school, i was even worse. i guess my problems at home and inner problems were taken out on other people. and i regret doing the things i did. it was all a metal thing really. i would make fun of other girls even guys but truth is, i wasn't happy with myself. i guess my story really isn't a story at all. it's really just an apology.... and i wish i could take back all the things i said. but i can't. but i'm here to fight for you. i will never do what i did. because now i'm a role model. and i am sorry. to all of those i bullied. and to those i didn't....

IM going to start off with an experience as a bully. I once told this girl that she looked ugly with short hair. later that day I took my toys to the orphanage and the person who opened the door was the same girl that I told was ugly. Ever since that day I learned that you never know what others are dealing with. That touched me so much that I decided to stand up for people being bullied and make sure they had a friend.

Now my experience getting bullied. The first time I was bullied was when I was in grade school I was called weird and made fun of because I had glasses. It didn't really bother me till middle school when I moved with my dad. He would call me names. he would let his kids call me weird and just be rude to me. His wife would hit me, trip me slap me, anything you could think of she did. I would go to school and no one would talk to me once again id hear"your weird" and "your not normal".

I finally moved again to live with my grandparents, by this time I was starting my freshman year in high school. nothing really happened then. it started  sophomore year. my ex boy friend called me ugly told everyone I was pregnant hed call me a slut. There were these girls who would push me in the halls, call me a slut and spread nasty rumors. that same ex does anything in his power to tell me to kill myself tells me "no one likes you not even your parents want you". your just a slut. its been 2 years and he still calls me or texts me to tell me those things.

I no longer let the bullies get to me. the thing that gets me through this pain is helping others and making them happy and proud to be themselves. that makes me happy. Making someone feel loved and happy is how I get through everything. Never let go of who you are. you are beautiful and you were put on this earth for a reason. be who you want to be and enjoy life. ITS OK TO BE "DIFFERENT".

Well, this started in high school my 10 grade year, it started to really show, my friends at the time didn't like who i was going out with, They started to spend rumors around my other friends saying that "im pergent" when I WAS NOT, i didn't know who started it but it made me worry a lot and it hurt me. so i went on with school afraid to even come to school because i thought everyone thought i was going to have a baby, when i was not. I didn't know what to do about it and all my friends were not with me, so i went to one of my best friends and he happens to be my boyfriend and we talked and i cryed to him in tears, i didn't know what to do, i didn't want to go to school anymore or talk to anyone, and still now i am getting Bullyed and it hurts i wish i could stand up to these people but i just don't know how to.

My experience with bullying is unfortunately all too typical.  It started in middle school, when I dared to stand up against people saying bad things about me, but even when I was bullied at no point was I ever threatened the way today's kids are threatened.

I have also been the bully myself.  A story:  I had this friend named James.  James was the outcast of the outcasts.  Brilliant, imaginative, intelligent, a little odd, but otherwise harmless.  I was his friend from middle school until my junior year at high school.  I stopped being his friend and started believing some of the things that they were saying about him and actually started saying some of the hateful things and doing them.  Why?

Because I wanted to fit in, that's why?  It's a shallow reason, but dollars to donuts you will probably find that very reason is what drives a lot of kids today to do the same thing.  He was an outcast, and I was tired of being one of those.  So I shunned him, and tragically he lost his life in an accident where he was electrocuted.
What happened after that is something I will never forget.  Weeks later after I learned that he was the victim of that accident, I lamented that I missed him.  His older sister brought me up short and told me that I was the worst one of them all because I was his best friend and I turned on him.
Ever since then, it has been my passion to see justice done and to stand up for those that cannot stand up for themselves.

Ever since i started middle school, i was bullied. It was a daily thing. Now that i'm in highschool, the kids are a lot meaner, and do and say worse things. I had an account on Ask.fm. You wouldn't believe the things people were saying to me. I was called so many names, and even told to kill myself. I've been told i was worthless, that nobody likes me, and that i'm a failure to society. All that happened a few months ago, however, ever since i deleted my account, about 4 times a week, i'll get an unknown number call my phone, saying they're going to kill me, saying it'll be a good thing to the world. People honestly don't understand how bad their words make people feel. I've never really had anyone there for me, and if i did, they'd eventually just run off like the rest. I don't think anyone should ever feel that way. Nobody deserves to be treated like that. People need to know that someone is there for them.

There was a boy, we will call him Jonny. Jonny was a normal kid living a normal life. He had friends who cared, he had a community that loved him, and a family that listened! What could go wrong? A lot actually. Jonny had a secret, and he thought he could trust the people around him with it. So he shared it. He came out and said he was gay. He thought this would allow him to be himself. Instead, he was bullied. His friends that once cared were the ones laughing at him. That community that once loved him stared at him like he was a disease. Life kept getting worse for Jonny, and soon he felt like there wasn't anything left for him to do. One day after school he couldn't take the humiliation anymore and he committed suicide. Now this story doesn't just end on the sad note. Jonny's story impacted a lot of people and turned them against bullying! Now, there are news stories and movies all over showing how bullying can really hurt someone! That is exactly what we need today! We need to be able to educate people about bullying so that we can all stand together and stop bullying. 

When I was in elementary/middle school I had 2 friends Ivana and Dario. We would always hang out they are the reason I'm here today. Every since I was little I knew I was different I knew that I didn't have the same attraction to boys as I had to girls. Even though I tried to hide it everybody knew. I was a tomboy I never did like girl clothes I hated them in fact. I always had my hair in a ponytail or braids straight to the back. I had a crush on this girl who I thought was my friend. In the end she taught me that not everyone is your friend and that there's just some people you can't trust. She told everybody I liked her and I was picked on for it. I stopped getting bullied when I was around 12 and that's because we moved to Texas but by then the damage was done. I have insecurity problems and I don't think highly of myself sometimes. I'm 20 and bully has effected all my life all the way into adulthood. Way too many kids in this country kill themselves because they're being tormented daily by other kids whose parents who don't give a crap about what their child is doing to another. Crazy thing is they don't seem to care until their child is facing criminal charges for the death of the kid they bullied. Bullying not only affects the child being bullied, it affects the families and the community as a whole. This needs to stop now. 

I moved to the bay area when i was in third grade, i was extremely shy and had a terrible speech impediment. I also was diagnosed with ADD and was sent back a grade. from that point on i was pushed around, treated horribly, and got beat up a lot. i had no idea how to tell my parents, i missed so much school just to avoid the people. When i went to middle school i thought it would get better, but it only got worse. I wasn't attractive and when i hit puberty i gained a lot of weight. people would pull at my long hair, call me aweful names, they would still beat me up and would steel my belongings. I would do my homework and someone would steel it from me, i was to shy to defend myself so again i missed school. finally in 8th grade i made some friends, they were shy like me and we could talk to each other about what was going on. unfortunately they got bullied for being around me, they stopped talking to me. thats when i started cutting, was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and anorexia. i tried to kill myself 4 times. my parents didn't know what to do, so they locked me away until Freshman year. they didn't know the whole story so they thought it was just me looking for attention. When i started high school suddenly everyone wanted to be my friend, i had lost so much weight that people wanted to date me, but because of my emptiness i chose to date someone for almost 2 years who abused me. I guess i was already used to people treating me that way so i took it, we separated for a bit but each time i took him back because i was so lonely. the verbal and mental abuse became physical and sexual. He would beat me and rape me, i finally got away when it came out he was cheating on me. i told my parents everything, we tried to press charges but had no evidence. i didn't want the world to know what happened, i felt embarrassed and that it was my fault so we stopped pursuing it. because of all these things that happened in my life I'm depressed, angry, still suicidal, still battle anorexia, and i still cut. in total i have tried to kill myself 10 times, each time i got so close. and each time failed miserably. but i try to use my story to help people. I am in a healthy loving relationship and have friends who love and care about me. i am in therapy and trying to get better. im not there yet but hopefully soon i will be. im a senior in high school, and no one even looks at me the wrong way now, people know i don't take crap from anyone. I have started fights in school cus i have seen people being bullied, im known as someone to be scared of but also someone who will take care of others. im literally everyones therapist. its pretty great, and someday i hope to be a teacher so no one has to go through what i had to go through. i want everyone to know they are loved and special <3

-Alex Smih