J

Oh boy. This is a good one.

J and I had a very rocky friendship from the start. There was always some sort of drama.

Sure, I contributed to my fair share of the drama, but J tormented me. There's a very fine line between normal middle school drama and fighting and tormenting someone.

There really aren't enough words on this planet for me to describe all of the things this girl did to me but the highlight is her and her mother ganging up on me in the school parking lot and warning me to watch my back because she knew "an army" of girls at the high school we were both going to and she would not hesitate to send her army upon me.

That's kind of alarming, right?

Hey J 

So, hey J. How are you? You posted on Facebook about a year ago about how as the older you get, the less you want to be involved in drama. Boy do I wish you'd come to that realization way earlier.

You were beyond cruel to me. You mocked me in the middle of class, the bathrooms, play practice, everywhere you could. Never-mind just outside on the playgrounds. It was like every single thing I did had to be critiqued and ridiculed. It was relentless.

Sometimes when I remember the things you did to me and said to me, I really wonder if they are things that keep you up at night or if you've forgotten. If I were you, I'd live in regret.

My struggle with mental health began with you, J. At 12 years old I was depressed because of the way you treated me. That's not okay.

No matter who you are, you have no right to treat others poorly. I hope you've learned that by now. When we're kids we're told that bullies are bullies because they're insecure about themselves. I've never understood that logic because it kind of almost excuses bad behavior. There is no excuse. There is absolutely no excuse for treating another human being badly. Life is hard enough, why make anyone's situation any worse?

PSA

Overall, this school experience was astronomically better than my grammar school. Sure, there was one really mean girl that tried to make other people also be mean to me. Compared to what I came from, though, it was like a whole other planet.

Still, I was bullied and many people turned a blind eye to it. Again, I was left to fend for myself and no courage to do so.

So if you're reading this and you're in a situation where someone isn't treating you right, this is your sign. Stand up for yourself!

Bullying is a really serious problem and it needs to be better addressed.