So instead of editing my first post and then making a silly "my post is updated" post, I decided to simply reply and tell me experiences in the bully world.
Personally, I've been on both the giving and receiving in of the bully totem, and I'm not talking about mild bullying either... I mean full on nearly ruining a person's life bullying. Do I feel bad for what I've done? Yes. Do I feel that the bullying I received in return was justified? Yes. Would I wish what I put others through or went through myself upon others? No.
So anyway, growing up as a kid who was always compared to my older brother, I had a knack to want to do get back at my brother... only I was younger and her was older, and for some reason I feared him (until later in life)... So in second grade, I had a classmate of mine who had nearly all the characteristics that my brother had and since he was a smaller person than me, I started picking on him. At first it was simple things like pushing him in line, taking his lunch money, and stuff like that. But as time went on, I began to get meaner. I started to literally trap him in bathrooms to give him swirlies or even started to insult him as a person. One time, I even waited until the teacher left the classroom and broke my pencil only to cry to the teacher and say he did it.
Now I knew that it wasn't his fault that I was treating him like that, and after a while I really began to feel sorry for him. So much that one day at recess, I went to him to try and apologize. And rightfully so, he didn't accept my apology. In fact, he did what any kid should've done and he punched me in the nose... which busted my nose open. My friends came over and saw my nose bleeding, and I told them all that he had every right to punch me. All I did was clean up my nose at the water fountain and walk back into the classroom. Now even then, I knew that after all I wrongfully put him through he still had every right to be mad and not accept my apology. So instead, I did what I doubt any other bully would've thought to do. I told on myself to my teacher... Of course I was in 2nd Grade in Tennessee during the days where paddles were still allowed. So in front of my entire class, I got whooped by my teacher. To this day, I've never been the kind of person to take bullying too far... or even went too long without apologizing for my actions.
As for my experience of being bullied...
Well that would come years later, and honestly, I still believe that this was without a doubt God's way of making me realize just how wrong I truly was. I was in 7th grade and had just moved to Louisiana from my hometown in Tennessee. I'm the new kid in school whose father (step father really, but to me he's my father cause he raised me) is in the military, and I'm living just outside of the base... and if you've never been there, that small town is literally the town with one or two stop lights... you blink you miss it.
So obviously, with my dad being military my family had a bit more money to spend than other kids. So one day I'm in school, with a brand new iPod (the old fat ones with a shit load of song capacity on it) and we're out in the little courtyard area. I'm listening to my music, minding my own business when some 8th graders come up to me. Before I could even pause my music, they swatted the iPod out of my hand and it broke on the ground. Now I don't know about anyone else who has a military dad, but when I was growing up I was always told to stand up for myself. And even though I was out numbered, that's what I tried to do... I learned quick that without friends, movies fights are movie fights for a reason and not heard about it real life... because all four of them beat the shit out of me. Of course, all five of us got suspended. And from there, I honestly thought it was over... but for a total of two years I continuously kept getting stopped by them at either my locker, my classroom doors, and even my bus... and to make matters worse for me, my teachers had it in their minds that I was this Military Brat bad ass that when those four kids found me in a class room, the teachers made sure they left the room and closed the door behind them so that the kids could beat the shit out of me again.
Finally one summer, I was at the Wal-Mart in the town area looking by the video games, and I saw the four kids there... which obviously they saw me too. Only this time, I had my cousin who was there on vacation by my side... and he was a black belt in Karate. So I kept my composure and just kept talking to my cousin when those four kids started coming over towards us. Now keep in mind, I've taken full fledged ass whoopings from these guys for two years straight... and now that I had some sort of back up, I was not going to let them get off easy. So naturally, when they came over and pushed me into the DVD shelves, I went after all of them. My cousin, who had heard about me being bullied (because he was the only one I could confide in at the time) joined in and the two of us made sure that those four wouldn't bother us.
Now of course, because this was in public and because we broke a display case, I along with the four bullies got arrested. They had to do community service while I spent about 2 months in Juvi. When I got out, I moved to South Carolina, and I've been here ever since. The best part of all that, is that I'm now an independent wrestler living my dream while all four of them have recently been locked away from attempt in murder.
Since the introduction of myspace and all these social networks, I've tried to find that kid that I bullied in second grade so that I could apologize... sincerely apologize. Especially since I now knew how he felt after what I put him through. I don't remember his full name, just his first name... but it's a common first name, so that's not going to help much at all.
And that's my experience with bullying... as far as school wise goes. I've encountered Bullying/Abuse from my older brother and step-dad over time but that's another story for another time.