"All the things that happened in high school won't matter." That's what everyone says when you graduate. I believed it when I heard it a year ago and I thought that I would simply keep my good memories and throw the bad ones away. I was wrong. Some things that we experience stay with us even if we don't want them to.

I was bullied in high school by someone who I thought was a friend and I have to say it changed me as a person. My sophomore and senior years are always looked upon as a dark period in my life and that's why. At first, I thought once I left high school I would simply go back to how I was before the situation, but I soon realized that it wouldn't be that way.

To the person who changed my life forever,

I don't know why you did it. I'm not sure if you thought spreading rumors and turning friends against me would be funny, but it wasn't. While you were sitting there basking in the glory of having something "funny" to talk about, I was sitting somewhere else experiencing depression for the first time. I was sitting alone wondering. I wondered what went wrong. I wondered how you could betray me. I wondered how you could forget all that I had done for you. I never showed that it bothered me, but I went home everyday for a couple months and cried. It was like getting punched in the gut every single day, but having to ignore it and go on with your life like the situation you were facing didn't exist.

I know that you aren't aware of how much you affected me, but I wish you were. No, not so fast. I won't allow you to have the satisfaction of thinking you ruined my life. While there were things I took from this situation, not all of them were bad. Yes, I sometimes doubt myself and am occasionally frightened from what others will think of me, but I also have become stronger and have made friends because of you.

Because of how you hurt me, I have reached out to others who were dealing with similar situations. No one should go through pain like that alone. I've also become more open. I speak my mind because I know that what matters most is what I think of myself. Happiness is found in oneself and not the people they surround themselves with. To be truly happy, you must love yourself. You helped me finally get to a point where I could. I'm no longer timid around people. I know that if I want to be respected, I have to be confident.

While what you did to me will always be a tarnish on my high school memories, I have now come to accept it. Even though you treated me poorly, spoke behind my back, and spread rumors about me, I look at all of this as a learning experience. While I won't have stories about how my high school years were the greatest, I could say that high school made me grow up and made me stronger. I look back now and I know that it wasn't me, it was you. No one who is happy would cause such pain to another. I hope you are well. I hope you have put those horrible ways behind you. I wish you the best.