My high-school years were very smooth, but then I remembered that I was the bully. So, former-bullies, do you have any regret of what you put people through? or are you..secretly proud?
As for myself.. I was a manipulative bastard. I cheated on tests and then when I got caught I’d be sure to have someone else’s handwriting on the back of the test, so that I could prove it wasn’t me who took it and it was just.. passed on to me. I got personal with teachers so that they’d like me, and people that I disliked for whatever reason, because they were shy or boring, I would draw out of their shell because I simply enjoyed the chaos. I remember one time a guy and girl in our class were dating, he was extremely tall and she was very little. So naturally I ms-painted their faces on a midget and a regular guy having sex and slid the printed copies into a few books that were in classrooms.
You seem to be proud of yourself, it’s disgusting.
Absolutely….when I hit my late 20’s I went through some personal changes and realized that in order for me to get on with life in a positive way, I had to make amends to those I had hurt. I contacted a lot of kids I formerly bullied and told them of my changes and how I regret how I treated them, and if there was anything I could do to make things right that I would do it. It was scary but the relief in the end was worth it.
I keep waiting for my bullies to do this.
I found the MySpace page for one of them. She’s a born-again Christian who works with children in the legal system.
I was highly tempted to post to her MySpace: “Does God know what a terrible person you were in junior high school? How can he forgive you when you’ve never asked forgiveness from those you’ve hurt?”
But then I realized I need to grow the fuck up and delete my Book of Grudges.
This isn’t really me, but I still feel so fucking terrible about it.
In high school, my 100% lesbian best friend wanted to go to prom but didn’t want to pay for any of it. She decided she would find the most desperate/lonely boy to bring her.
The one she chose was this very awkward fat kid named John. Every school had a “John” he was the fat kid who smelt funny, who would spend lunches sitting alone with his DS and anytime the teacher would call on him when his hand wasn’t raised, he would cry.
Anyway, she managed to get him to buy her a ticket to prom, pay for the pictures, her dress, the limo and “after prom party” like 3 times (the first 2 times she pocketed the money and claimed to have never received it (because he put it in her locker).
All through prom she ditched him, came to my table and hung out with our group of friends, took their picture ticket and took a picture of her and our group of friends with him not in it. The most she did was have ONE dance with him, it was the slow dance and the only reason she did that was because I made her.
She didn’t even show up for the after prom. I remember being there and just seeing john sit there waiting for her, crying, eating a million cupcakes.
I felt so bad and I still do. There was probably so much I could have done to prevent it, but I did nothing.
I thought the story would be about how your 100% lesbian friend was bullied, but it turns out she was 100% bitch. wtf?
Yeah, it just goes to show that people can be assholes no matter what gender, race or sexual orientation.
I hope the bullies that harassed me in high school feel regret about what they did to me. I’m so glad for the friends that I did have (and still have, 7 years later) but I think I cried myself to sleep every single night because of what people put me through in high school.
I’ve received two apologies so far via Facebook and one was genuine (the other, I eventually found out, was because he thought my sister was hot, ugh).
Now, nearly half the size I was in High School and much more confident about everything… I have forgiven people for what they did, but I won’t ever forget.
Oh boy, if my future children ever bully other kids they will get a stern talking to from me.
I was a little bit of a bully I guess. Usually to a few certain kids. If other people fucked with the kids I would mess with, then usually I’d turn into protecting the kids that I bullied.
At the time I thought they knew I was just messing around although now I’m not entirely sure. I’d never take it too far so I don’t really have any regrets or guilt associated with what I did, it was just in good fun. Nobody I messed with ended up fucked in the head or had a bad future, I never did anything downright mean or evil to them either.
I think I was a bully in Elementary school. In hindsight I was very mean to some people. I also don’t really regret it any more than I regret being stupid in any number of ways.
People grow up all sorts of ways.
Let me tell you something that bullies don’t want you to know: they give what they get. Nobody is immune from the bullying, and it’s far easier to identify as the passive victim rather than the active aggressor.
So I ask you to turn that question on yourself. Is there someone you mistreated for what they may have perceived to be no reason? How do you feel about that person now?
There are a number of people to whom I was a youthful asshole.
Puberty was a rough time, with feelings I couldn’t explain and did not know how to deal with them. So I was a right asshole to girls to whom I was attracted–moreso than I was to everybody else. I got shat on a lot back in those days, and I can’t say I didn’t deserve it.
There was a kid towards whom I was always physically violent. I don’t know why, I just thought I was being friendly. But I can’t say that I’d have appreciated what I did to him had it been the other way around. Middle/high school me was a social retard. And yeah, I really do feel bad about it.
I was an asshole to my sister as a kid. My mother is still shocked that we can have civil conversations. Of course, today she’s a total bitch by everyone’s estimate, but I don’t blame myself. I–and everybody else–blame her friends in high school, who actively encouraged and rooted for her bitchiness.
Saving the worst–but perhaps the one for which I’ll get the most “you were justified for doing that to her”–for last, we must go to my senior year of high school. I’ve commented before on what a hell that was: charged with stalking a girl because her father wanted control over his own life* (because her home life was collapsing around her, what with her mother being terminally ill–details of which I was aware at the time, so I cannot plead ignorance). There were multiple occasions where I would have the police escort her away from me and where I was in common areas. In classrooms, I’d frequently and rather bluntly interrupt any conversation she was having within ten feet of me to tell her to leave my sight–cutting her off from any friends of hers that happened to associate with me either by choice or force of scheduling. This severely limited her social circle, and probably hampered her ability to form relationships later on (if rumors that get back to me are any indication).
*I cannot say whether she was entirely on board with what he did. I do remember one occasion when she may have been trying to apologize and explain that she had nothing to do with it, but I would not accept. I was livid at her. I do know that it is a matter of official record that her father did threaten to kill me more than once.
To the boy in middle school I pretended to be in love with very publically for an entire year even though you wanted nothing to do with me: I am so sorry. I have no idea why I was like that. I look back and feel like it was a form of bullying. I hope no one that annoying is still in your life.