Disclaimer: This is not intended to be a sob story about my life. Thank you.

Now that I have that out of the way, I would like to take you on a small journey into my past.

Yesterday when I finished working out, I decided to look in the mirror like a stereotypical "bro." It was at this time that I caught myself thinking to myself, "You are disgusting. You need to go on another strict diet."

I will be the first to tell you, this past year I gained a little bit of weight compared to what I used to look like when I graduated high school. But, when I graduated high school I was fresh off of an intense diet and workout regiment that aided in my weight loss (50 pounds).

From middle school all the way up to my senior year of high school, I was on the losing end of bullying. Yes, I said that very mean nasty word -- bullying. I come from a very small town and an even smaller school, so that word is not used lightly. When I say that I used to be bullied, I truly mean it. Don't believe it, then let me tell you the names I was repeatedly called for 5+ years. The top two names that I remember being called when I was in middle/high school were "Fat Tits" and "Lesbian." Every day at school involved me being fondled and abused, mainly because I was incredibly overweight and had a severe case of Gynecomastia. Hehe, hawhaw. Get your laughs out of the way now. I understand it is funny to some people; it does not offend me anymore.

Every day that I went to school was like another battle in a war. I would have to ward off physical attacks and also emotional attacks. I could hear people who I thought were my friends talking and laughing about how I looked like a lesbian because I hadn't hit puberty yet or because I had man boobs. Alone in my room, I would cry for hours and contemplate committing suicide because the pain I felt from the ridicule from my peers could not be nearly as bad as the pain I would feel from killing myself. I do not say this lightly; suicide is not a joke.

Finally, I decided to do something about it all. I started dieting and working out an almost obsessive amount. In the first four months of my senior year of high school, I lost 50 pounds. I went from 235 at 5'9" to 180. I finally started to hit puberty, and I became not so girlish looking. I grew up.

Almost overnight all of those people who made fun of me decided that I was cool. They started to treat me like a normal human being again, and all of the girls who would never give me a chance decided that I might be worth while. Funny how that works isn't it?

I say all this to lay groundwork for what I said earlier. Three years after my serious weight loss I have gained a lot of weight back, most of it being muscle, but as of recent, a little bit of college weight. After gaining some not so welcomed weight this past year, it has been difficult to look at myself in the mirror again. This is all because of the remaining scars that I have from years of emotional abuse.

I am writing this article, opening myself up finally, all to raise awareness of just how traumatic bullying really is. One would think that after losing weight and working out a bunch that all of my insecurities would go away, but think again. I put myself through hell just to try and become socially acceptable. I spent my Senior year of high school dieting and refusing to do anything fun, food or socially, all because I couldn't stand who I was. This was all due to the terrible bullying that I had to endure. Bullying does much more than hurt you at the time; it ruins your self image and any self-confidence that you have for years to come.

Some of you might say that I am just being bitter, and you are 100 percent correct. I am bitter that some of my childhood and high school days were ruined by self-entitled pricks who thought it might be fun to build themselves up by bringing someone else down. I still haven't let go of some of this built up hatred that I have, but I have been trying.

What I mean to say is, to this day, I still struggle with self-hatred all because of the awful abuse that I endured when I was younger. Please, think twice before you decide to pick on someone because of their weight, or the way they look, or even the way they talk. This all happened over three years ago, and I still struggle with wanting to just end it all because I can't get the fat little kid with man boobs out of my head. Every time I look in the mirror, that is exactly what I see. I see a group of guys pointing and laughing, or a group of girls looking and whispering to each other. So again, I urge you to put the feelings of those around you in mind before you decide to point and laugh.

To my good friends who were able to see through the little fat kid with no self-esteem and endure the ridicule with me, I will never be able to thank you enough. It is because of you that I was able to make it through the hard times and become a better person because of it.

To all of the pathetic people who decided it was a good idea to demean another human being to make themselves feel better, I also thank you. If it weren't for you I would have not lost all of that weight and improved my own life. In a very loathsome way, you all helped me hate myself enough to actually do something. I can only pray that you learn from your mistakes and never treat someone the way that you treated me again.

This may have came off as a bitter sob story, but that is not my intention. I have struggled and I have overcome; my time is over. I am now just a normal person who carries a lot of baggage from the past. I am writing this in the hopes that someone will read this and it may help them get through a hard time, or someone else will read this and think twice before bullying.

Think twice before you call someone a name or point and laugh; you never know what they may be going through. It takes a true human being to offer a helping hand. Be the better person. Don't look at someone for their appearance, look at them for who they truly are on the inside.