Things that piss me off, #1 trigger: Bullies.
If you look up "Jennifer Livingston" and/or "Wisconsin news anchor" on a search engine you will find a story currently making national rounds. I'm STILL pissed off by this after reading about it earlier today. Even with all the attention the bullying subject in general is (finally) gaining, this is a textbook example of a form of bullying that very
( Read more... )
There are only about two or three instances that I can point to where my parents honestly, truly, deeply hurt me, and one of them was the aforemention in this post of my late cat, Neko. The way they handled that was just...a slap in the face, on so many levels. (Browse my archives back about February of 2010 and you'll find the entries on that one. Let's just say that while it was not the sole reason I opted to take up a job offer in Florida I received later that same year, it WAS an inspirational factor for it.)
And here is where I reveal my own dark secret:
In 5th grade there was a morbidly obese girl in my class. Needless to say, she was picked on unmercifully because of her weight. I wasn't one of the chief bullies...but I did my share of name-calling and joining in of the bullying (mainly because I myself was unpopular and growing ever-more-so by the year due to my weirdness and the developing awkward social cliquishness of adolescence, so I was trying to fit in with the crowd...but that doesn't excuse my assholery).
I learned much later that she had some kind of chronic genetic health issue that made her the way she was. (Don't remember what it was, but I know she had extensive knee surgery on both legs because of it) Her mother also had it, though I don't know to what degree.
So...yeah. I was a shit. I know kids can be shits like that during those years, but still. So, in a weird way, I'm sort of sometimes glad for my bullying experiences (being on the receiving end of it, that is) in high school because a) it taught me how NOT to behave, and b) it reinforced the importance to me of realizing just how much it sucks, when it's you that's getting ground down.
I don't even know what prompted me to renounce that in myself and start treating this girl a lot better than I did...but one day during recess, I just decided, what the hell - make nice. Surprise - it worked wonders, and for a while there I had a new friend. (We eventually just sort of naturally parted ways in high school - by then I was *the* outcast and she had issues of her own that made her harder to get along with, and finally she moved to a different school. Such is life. *shrug* )
Reply
Leave a comment