When you’re a kid everything seems either incredibly exciting, or scary. In my case, the first day of school was the most horrifying thing ever. Being a little girl with a very shy personality was difficult on me. As the years went by and my weight had increased, being a little girl with a weight problem made things worse. The bullies had arrived…
Let’s start off with the fact that I was not bullied right at the first day of school. I was so shy to meet other people because I was antisocial. You see, I was the type of kid who had bubble wrap around me, and I was always around my mom. I did not speak at all throughout a whole year of Junior Kindergarten, but I somehow managed to make some friends.
Then when I was around six, I had to get my tonsils removed. After the surgery, my mother began to notice a sudden issue with my weight. I would eat very little but would gain an unhealthy amount of weight; this was due to the tonsillectomy.
Going back to school after the summer vacation was going to be hell for me, but I didn’t know that until one of my classmates (which I had known since the first day of school), laughed at me. I hadn’t made many friends to begin with, but those few people that had spoken to me no longer did.
I was excluded from playing any activities during recess. The girls would pull my hair and call me “fatty” or “ugly”. I already had social anxiety, but this just made everything worse. This continued on up until the eighth grade.
When I left on vacation the summer after middle school graduation, I was ecstatic to know that I would be going to a different high school – away from those kids that once tortured me. I had began to lose all of that weight and felt more confident about myself.
A few years ago, my elementary school had a reunion which I had decided to go to. When I was called up, all of my old classmates were shocked at the way I had changed. I was no longer the ‘fat’ kid. I was getting asked out by guys who couldn’t even remember my name back then, and it felt great to be able to say “you made fun of me, why would I go out with you?”.
To all the bullies that decided to make all those years a living hell for me; thank you. Thank you for making me the strong, confident woman that I am today. I showed you all that I am capable of doing anything, and I am able to withstand other people like you.
