Story 2: Shaping Who We Are

This next story is not really me telling it but the person who told it to me.  It was so well put that I don’t think I could do that much better of a job describing it and describing what bullying does and how it affects certain people versus others. So, here it is,

“My brother and I were both bullied in elementary school for being nerdy and different. Everybody pitched in: boys, girls, jocks, geeks, even other bully victims. We handled it in different ways. My brother was more submissive and eventually caved in to society's view of how he should be, which I'll get to later. But I was more stubborn and headstrong, and refused to change because I thought that was exactly what the bullies wanted. Eventually that led to a point where I would fight back both verbally and physically, and I had to transfer to a private middle school. This is where it gets interesting, because from this point on I was the main cause for my own bullying. I was so resistant to bullying that I became resistant to any kind of criticism at all, and often caused fights just because somebody didn't like how I viewed a certain issue or what kinds of video games I played. For high school I transferred back to the public system, and my resistant nature continued but was also intensified by rumors about me stemming from my violent defensive tactics in elementary school. In short, I was hated by everyone for a million different reasons, even by people that have never spoken to me.

My brother decided to cave in and change to become more popular. He's still a geek at heart, but has taken on an appearance and level of arrogance similar to the people that used to bully him. As for me, starting fresh at college has helped tremendously but I am still somewhat resistant to criticism. Looking back, I am starting to wonder if I would be more calm and careless if I was never bullied. I guess the moral of my story is that bullying is not just something that's part of growing up. Bullying shapes who we are as adults and even the most innocent happy little kid can be turned into a nervous defensive wreck under what would seem like the least significant conditions.”

Wow, how true is that?  I don’t think many people realize this but bullying truly does shape who we are as people just as anything does in life.  Bullying is just another life experience and whether people want to accept that they are the way they are because of how they acted towards someone, or how someone acted towards them, that is their decision. 

Another thing that this person mentioned was how his/ her innocence was basically taken away.  This is something bullies do not realize and if they do, it is just part of their malicious plans.  If you are a bully, you are taking away a child’s innocence, pride, dignity, everything.  As I mentioned before, we need to start standing up to these bullies and you need to show them that they are no longer in control.  You need to stand up and show them that you are and always will be the one in control of your own life.