Bully.....

Lately, there's been a lot of talk on the TV about bullies and people being bullied. I've read a lot of blogs that have been "shared" on Facebook about this issue. So I decided, I'd share my story about being bullied.

When I was in elementary school, life was wonderful. I was "popular"....well, as popular as a grade schooler could be. I was the "leader" in the clubs that were formed at Lunch recess. Oh, that is just too funny, thinking back.

And then it happened. 5th grade came to an end. We were moving on to Middle School. It was pretty scary for me. Before we started, we had orientation and I remember thinking, "Oh my God, I'm going to get lost in this school!" Little did I know, that was not the thing I needed to worry about.

Our first day of school came, most of that is a blurr now that I'm older but the thing I remember is sitting down in our "home room" and two kids walked up to me. Their names were Tim and Joe. (No, I didn't change any names here, I'm just not using last names.) They came over to me, just to inform me, "We're going to make you cry by the end of this school year."

I'm pretty sure I just laughed. After all, I'm friends with everyone! Why would you want to do that to me? I don't even know who you are. Little did I know, this was my first time dealing with a bully. And I didn't have just one. I had two.

They made me cry that year. I'm sure I cried several times. I didn't tell anyone. Everyone that I knew was at school and they saw them, they heard them, they knew. I didn't tell the teachers. The teachers would hear them. And I'm pretty sure they got in trouble at some point for doing it. But it didn't stop.

As the years went by, it got worse. It went from school grounds to late night phone calls to my house, telling my mom that I left my underwear at someones house...that I did this or that. This freaked my mom out. At the time, she was a single parent, working two full time jobs to help support us. They would show up at my door at all hours of the night... it got "stalker" scary.

Finally, some of my prayers were answered and one of them left our school. I'm not sure if he dropped out or got expelled or committed or what but now I was down to one bully. Thank you God for answering some of my prayers.

But the bullying continued. Now, keep in mind. They were never physical. They were just down right mean. Well, one day, it was our Sophomore year.

I was walking down the hall before class started, to my locker. I had one of those little baggies of Cheetos in my hand and I was snacking. This was my breakfast that morning. So you got a chunky girl, walking down the hall, with a bag of Cheetos and it's not even 8:30am. Perfect for a bully. And WHAM! He took aim and shot nasty words out of his mouth. I dropped my breakfast, turned and shot back. I can't tell you today what I said, but I didn't stop. All these years of being bullied had exploded from my mouth. And seriously, if my mouth was a gun, the kid would have died that day. He charged me. Like a bull charges the red cape. And inside, my mind screamed "OH SHIT! You're going to die today!" But my body didn't back down. He was in my face. I could feel the spit from every word that came out of his mouth hit me. All I could do was stand there. I knew, at that point, if I backed down, it would NEVER stop. I waited. I waited for his hands to pull back. For his hand to clinch into a fist and punch me in my face. I would not put it past him. But he didn't. He continued to yell and scream. And I continued to stand tall and take what was coming. The school bell rang and he was done. And my friends, that was the last day that Tim bullied me.

Joe continued to pop up in my life from time to time. I actually went to the police about him because it was more scary stalking than bullying. And, in the end, my dad beat him up and an order of protection was issued. But that's another story that I'd rather forget.

I don't hate Tim. Sometimes when we're kids, we do mean things to people and in my opinion, what comes around goes around. So I don't judge him for how he treated me in school. We've been to functions and we're able to talk to each other like humans. I treat him with respect and he now treats me with the same respect that I only prayed for in school. So yes, all of my prayers were answered. Some just took a little longer.