Our teenage years were the best days of our lives…NOT. It was a time when we were quickly changing physically and mentally. We were in the process of finding who we were as people. Our teenage years consisted of first dates, relationships, and jobs. We wanted to follow what everyone else was doing, but what would stray people away from being who they want to be and doing what they want to do. Those people were called bullies. Every school has them and they put down their classmates at every age. If there were students who were dressed, acted, did their hair differently, or had some awkward transitions into adolescence, they became an automatic target for bullies.

I, like many other people in my school, was on the receiving end of bullying. My friends were also bullied. My friend group seemed to be a target for bullies throughout middle school and high school. It was not a fun time at all. I was never sure why all of us were tormented and made fun of, but the bullies loved to bother us. I was never too sure how it affected my friends on the inside, but I’ll share how I dealt with it. I was bothered on the bus, in the locker room, in the hallway, and a few times online; all places where adult supervision was lacking.

On the bus, especially in middle school, my peers would just keep saying ridiculous things to me the entire bus ride. They were hurtful and degrading, especially coming some my younger peers. I didn’t even look at them, hoping that they would go away. One specific situation in the locker room was really random but quite embarrassing. I was tying my shoes and one of my peers slapped my rear end. There were five other guys in the area, including one of my friends. I didn’t know how to react, I just pretended it didn’t happen.

One day I got a notification on Facebook that someone wrote on my wall. I rarely interacted with the person who wrote, “I really think you’re a fagot and should jump off a clif”. That was rough, but I just thought to myself that he doesn’t know how to spell anything. I just removed the post and blocked him. How could he be putting me down when he seems so unintelligent?

In the hallway, I was walking to class and someone ran up to me out of nowhere and pushed me down. In that situation, I fell into one of my friends and she almost fell, too. I was so overwhelmed and embarrassed that I wanted to leave, but I went to class anyway. A bunch of my classmates who saw it happen asked if I was okay and told me that I should tell someone. In that situation, I told the principal and got this kid suspended.

My strategy for dealing with bullying was to ignore the bully. I knew that they wanted reactions from me and if I didn’t provide one, they were wasting their time and energy. When I was pushed down I did have to tell someone, but it was rare for me to do something about my bullies. My junior and senior years were when my grades were remarkable, I was accepted into colleges and was ready to start my future, I noticed that people started to leave me alone. I thought it had to do with me doing something good with my life and they were intimidated. However, that wasn’t the case for everyone. I never took the bullying to heart nor did I let it bother me. Some people don’t handle bullying very well and I saw it hurt a lot of people. When I saw someone being bullied, I didn’t do anything at that time and I regret that. There were times when I said hi or smiled at the people who were just bullied. I wanted them to have at least one person be nice to them that day.

I watched a documentary during my senior year of high school and then in one of my classes at St. Joe’s. It was about a few students that were bullied pretty badly. Two of them even committed suicide. These students were in high school, middle school, and even elementary school. I can’t imagine someone that young taking their own lives. It really broke my heart and brought me to tears. I couldn’t imagine being bullied so badly to that point. I feel so badly for the parents, families, and friends of those students who were bullied. I feel even worse for the students who were bullied to death.

So, this is my ode to the bullies out there. I hope that one day you realize how hurtful you can actually be. To put someone down doesn’t make you a bully. I only see you as a monster. Monsters are the ones who put people down just because they are insecure about themselves. I often wonder who you monsters could live with yourselves after seeing the situations that arise from tormenting others. People have hurt and killed themselves because of you. I wouldn’t look at you as a student; I look at you as a criminal. One day, the people that you put down and torment will hurt or kill themselves and then you’ll be sorry. You’ll live with that for the rest of your life and I sincerely hope you do. And if someone actually decides to spend their life with you and have kids, you better damn right tell them that there will be serious repercussions of bullying.