I must admit I was pretty lucky. While I was bullied in school, it started around 4th grade, so I had a few years of good friendship, plus the teachers loved me and treated me very well (they never realized I was bullied). Also, in the 80s-90s, bullying in Mexico was not like in the US or other countries. It was more about name-calling and isolation from the group (and some pranks like gluing my locker's lock) than any physical violence.
Funnily enough, I kinda brought the bullying upon myself. While I was not bullied from 1st-3rd grade, there were kids that were, and I started being friends with the bullied kids so they wouldn't be alone and sad. When this mean girl joined the group in 4th grade, this tendency plus my inherent "weirdness" made me a target, and since the other bullied kids had been pulled out of the school by then, I was the only target left.
I don't regret being friends with the bullied kids and becoming a target too though. Years later, during a science fair held in another school, one of the students there went to look for me at my stand. She was one of the bullied kids I'd been friends with, and she remembered me fondly (sadly there were no cellphones then yet and I had no pen/paper to write down her phone number so I lost track of her afterwards). Also, at some point I learned to stand my ground and defend myself, so the bullies still kept me isolated but otherwise didn't bother me as much, and since I didn't mind being isolated I wasn't too bothered by it either. While I don't exactly thank these people for bullying me, I am thankful for the strength I gained from learning to stand my ground.
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Date: 2014-03-31 06:13 pm (UTC)Funnily enough, I kinda brought the bullying upon myself. While I was not bullied from 1st-3rd grade, there were kids that were, and I started being friends with the bullied kids so they wouldn't be alone and sad. When this mean girl joined the group in 4th grade, this tendency plus my inherent "weirdness" made me a target, and since the other bullied kids had been pulled out of the school by then, I was the only target left.
I don't regret being friends with the bullied kids and becoming a target too though. Years later, during a science fair held in another school, one of the students there went to look for me at my stand. She was one of the bullied kids I'd been friends with, and she remembered me fondly (sadly there were no cellphones then yet and I had no pen/paper to write down her phone number so I lost track of her afterwards). Also, at some point I learned to stand my ground and defend myself, so the bullies still kept me isolated but otherwise didn't bother me as much, and since I didn't mind being isolated I wasn't too bothered by it either. While I don't exactly thank these people for bullying me, I am thankful for the strength I gained from learning to stand my ground.