Real Teens Speak Out

What Really Matters

As my last year of middle school was wrapping up, I began to worry greatly about how I would survive my first year of high school. I did not have many friends and I was the constant victim of a bully. I did not think it would get any better from here on.

I was wrong. Things would get a lot better for me during my Freshman year of high school.

Shortly during my first year of high school, I surprisingly made a lot of friends who were both in my grade and upperclassmen. I started to find a place where I had a lot of people I liked. I found a place where I felt that I fit in. However, this boy seemed to find his own place in our school. While I was an Arts kid, he was more of the sporty type. I found that I was sitting with a medium sized group of close friends and he was sitting with almost no one. When we would have classes together, he would try the same old tactics on me. (Calling me stupid, ugly, homophobic slurs, e.c.t.) He would also resume bullying me physically. Since I now had so many new friends, what he said did not really matter to me anymore. I did not need validation from him or approval. I did not have to listen to the insults he would try to tear me down with. I, by no means, consider myself popular or better than anyone else, but when I think back to when he would tell me that no one cares about me and that no one likes me, and I think of all of the new friends that genuinely except me for who I am, I think otherwise. As my self-esteem increased, his seemed to lower greatly because he would desperately try to insult me with the usual insults I had became immune to. I continue to have this self-esteem to this day.
The only thing that really matters is how you view yourself. It does not matter what anyone else thinks about you. Even if you do not see it, there is something very special about you. Your bullies see it too, and they are threatened by it. That is why they need to tear you and other people like you down. Once you recognize why you are special and why you are worth more than you could ever conceive, people like this boy will not be relevant to your life.

It will happen. This story is my proof.

Bullying can never keep me down

In school I didn’t feel safe nor confident. I was always a target for the bullies that walk the school. They teased me about my skin color and about my weight. They saw the unique things about me and made them into a flaw. They insulted me about the silliest of things and even though it didn’t matter, it still hurts. How come people do those things and feel good about themselves? But they didn’t care. I felt that I didn’t belong and that I shouldn’t even try my best at school. But something in me did not want to give up and I ignored all the negativity that they threw my way and I am proud of myself and not let people who didn’t know me get to me or even have any thing to say that didn’t speak about the values I have for myself.

Jealous

Over the last year, a lot of the people that I know started drifting away from their old friends, and making new friends. Rumors started popping up everywhere (e.g., “she likes so-and-so”, and “she was so mean to me!”). Sometimes it was fairly obvious what were rumors and what were not, but sometimes it was impossible to tell. Some of my friends would burst into tears during lunch or on the bus. The lesson of the story is this: it doesn’t matter! If you feel like your friends are being treated cruelly, stand up for them, whether they really did it or not.

My story

When I was in high school, I was a very quiet and shy girl. I was afraid of people getting too close to me, as a consequence I did not have any friends
I thought I was mysterious in that way. I really liked the boy who had sat beside me. I continued to flirt with him ignoring the jibes. Just when I was certain that this guy really liked me(from the way he smiled, flirted and touched me sometimes), one day I looked at him and he looked like he really really hated me. It was so sudden and like overnight, that day during class when I presented, he mocked me from behind, humiliating me and everyone said I deserved it. They said I should have stayed away from him and that he liked the beau of the class. I could not compare with her.
I was heartbroken, he did that to me Everyday and everyone hated me even the Teachers who justified his actions as right. No one even stood up for me being humiliated in that way every day. I was afraid of going to school, afraid of hearing the mockery, the name-calling and the looks.
Of course it’s an episode behind me, but I’m always lagging somewhere behind there as much as I run away from that past, I’m reminded of what I’m afraid of: that girl was really ME. It’s really depressing schools allow pupils to show disrespect to each other. It should change and I hope,soon.

3 years

I would say the bullying started when I was around 14 years old, and I had three years left before starting high school (I live in Sweden so the system is different here).
I went to a school where all the snobs went, very rich kids that only wore clothes worth hundreds of dollars and lived in huge mansions. I never quite fit in and throughout the years people started noticing and giving me a hard time. Not only isn’t my family rich as trolls, but they’ve always taught me to be humble when it comes to wealth and to respect everyone, no matter their diversities. Least to say, I didn’t fit in. everyday was a different battle, I would come 5 minutes late to class so I didn’t have to be around the other kids when the teacher wasn’t there, I would never, ever sit and eat in the cafeteria and I would always try to be seen as little as possible around school because there was always someone who had something mean to say.
I always felt so lonely and like I was the only one that didn’t fit in, and that they knew something about me that they could hold against me. It’s hard to explain, but after years of bullying you start to feel like maybe these people around me are right, that there must be something wrong with me, why would they otherwise treat me this way?
So yeah, I had lots of nicknames, I could hear people shouting after me when I walked past (kids I didn’t even know) and every single night I would cry myself to sleep. There is so much more to tell about those three years, but thankfully I changed schools when I started high school and I have lots of friends here and I’m a completely new person. I am so happy. It makes me so scared that there are people out there fighting the same battle that I did, that there are people feeling the same way right now. Never feel like the bullies won if you decide to change schools/speak up/defend yourself/move, be brave!

Not Anymore.

I guess you could say my bullying story starts out as simple as I was picked on since about elementary school. I started out having many friends, but they werent exactly the best of friends. I was constantly told I was too fat, too ugly, and no one likes me and I will never have friends. I was pushed around, even hit in the head with a kickball a couple of times and no one bothered to say sorry. My breaking point was when some girl put my name on the bathroom stall door and had other girls trash talk me around it. I never felt so horrible. I felt alone, at the age of eleven I felt alone. To this day, everything still haunts me. I will never be the same after what was constantly said and done to me. But I’ve made some pretty amazing friends, and I’m growing. I’m learning to love myself. It’s a constant battle to go to school and maintain the work you’ve put in. But I’m a warrior, I’m stronger now, and they will never hurt me again. (thank you, Demi Lovato.) I want to use my story and my battle to spread awareness, to put a stop to it. It’s so sad and confusing how teenagers and kids can be so mean to others when they know how hard it is to go to school and impress, to fit in I should say. I may be able to hear their words on repeat in my head everyday, and even knew ones sometimes but, I’m going to be happy. No matter what it takes. I may be broken, I may have been forced to grow up to fast, but they will never take my happiness, my smile, or my attitude from me again. Never again.

Standing Up To My Bullies After Three Years

For three years now I have been bullied. I finally realized that I have done nothing wrong, these girls are the problem. This all started in 6th grade, when I befriended a girl named J. We were best friends for almost a year, then she dropped me. 7th grade started and that when the real bullying began. J and her group of girls started rumors, stared me down in the hall, laughed when I walked by, and they even got people to turn against me. The funny thing is I was good friends with all of these girls in elementary school, I even went to preschool with one of them. One summer J “pranked” called me 97 times. I almost had to file a police report. Finally after 8th grade J left and went to a different school for high school. I thought it was over but it carried over into freshman year. This time M was the leader, everyone else followed. One time (I believe in 7th grade) at lunch M came up to me, embarrassing me as D filmed it and put it on snapchat. But, that was before I was voted out of the lunch table, I had nowhere to go. Of course all the “popular guys” adore them. Why wouldn’t they. Bullying another person who you grew up with to the point where they feel like they are the problem and feel like everyone hates them is so attractive. Right? I realized that I’m not the issue, they are. I’m not doing this for attention, but I am calling these girls out. This is nothing compared what they did to me. Nobody will truly understand how I feel, but im glad im still here today to tell my side of the story.

What did I do?

I have been bullied for 11 years, first grade through eleventh. Elementary school bullying consisted of being called names, having my artwork drawn on or thrown out, beating me up on the playground or throwing me to the ground in soccer, being tripped in the halls, targeted during gym, and plenty more ways the bullies got to me. Middle school consisted of the same, except the insults, beatings, and teasing all just got worse. I had had enough in 8th grade and switched to cyber school for high school. Guess what? They followed me. The bullies of my past public schools found ways to harass me in town, online, or in person. I’ve had apples thrown at me from cars, getting hit by cars while biking with the bullies driving the cars, and even being framed for shoplifting.

My depression has grown worse and worse, and now everyday I constantly put myself down because I feel like I’m nothing. It’s natural now to just look at myself and remember all that was said about me or done to me. 

All this time I wonder just what did I do to bring this on me.

The Victim Life

I still get bullied to this day, but where it all started, who will forget? I was first bullied when I was 10. I entered year four and hell, I don’t even know why I was bullied. I had friends yeah, and they didn’t really care. The teachers ignore it all, turning their backs to it like they do with everything they don’t want to deal with. It began with the typical name-calling and giggling behind their backs and I was smart enough to know it was a form of bullying. I brushed it off, it wasn’t important. Obviously it got worse. They were the cause of my anxiety.

But I’m more confident now and I’ve got my own back. I’ve grown independent and I still have to live with them because I’m not out of school yet, but I can tolerate them now.

All I’m saying is, it’s so terrible and it hurts and I can’t express to anyone how bad it is. I just kinda outlined what happened, I don’t really like remembering it, don’t see why anyone would. But hey, it gets better. Yeah, I still bullied. Yeah they don’t stop. But then you learn to fight it. It’s sickening, and how dare they bring us down. You make it better. They don’t rule your life. You are awesome so get the hell up and stand strong. You know you can do it, so do it.

When I was in Grade 5, people avoided me. Sometimes i would think that they hated me for something i did. So i wanted to help them so that i could make up for whatever i did. But that didn’t stop it. Not only did the other kids keep avoiding me, they started spreading rumors about me and asking me to do things for them. I couldn’t stand it. Eventually, they started to call me names in front of everyone, even my best friends, even though they didn’t join in, they didn’t do anything to stop it either. One day, in the middle of the name calling, i decided i couldn’t take it anymore. I burst out crying in front of the whole class and stayed like that for the rest of the class. The teacher sent me to the office and had some people ask me what was wrong. I told them and they talked to the kids that were calling me names. My parents got involved with this even though i didn’t want them to worry about me in school. I felt like such a tattle tale after that, but at least the bullying stopped. This has been a major event in my life, it changed how i treated others, made me more willing to stand up for other bullied individuals. You have to know you’re not alone. There are others just like you. And just like me, you can get out of it. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.