BULLIED

Submission 723

Bullying sucks. Everyone has heard of it, most have suffered it, some still do it. Even harsh jokes can change someones life, and not for the better.

In sixth-grade I moved to a new school. The kids were cruel. I was on the thin side at the time with a non existent chest. Seems normal for a sixth grader right? Wrong. Everyday I had to suffer through jokes and chants and pokes in the chest. I started eating everything I could get my hands on. I still stood by my vegetarianism but that doesn't mean I couldn't stuff myself with salad until I felt like I was about to break, or eat an entire cheese pizza.

It finally worked, I gained weight. I was so happy, so proud. I thought I would be accepted by my classmates. Instead of being showered with praise and attention, I was teased for being overweight. The thing is though, I wasn't. I was the exact average weight for my age and height. That didn't matter though, I used to be skinny and in comparison, I was overweight.

That's when my eating problem developed. I had minor anorexia, not enough for my parents to notice and yell at me, but enough for me to go back to my original weight. You'll never guess what happened once I was back to being skinny.

I was teased for being too thin.

By that time I gave up. I knew I was going to earn their acceptance and that broke me. I was eleven years old and I was considering suicide. I kept breaking down into tears because I had no idea what to do. No one was ever happy with how I looked and they made sure I knew that. I had legitimate nightmares about locker rooms. I developed anxiety because I'd panic everytime I had to change for gym.

For awhile, I was insulting myself too.

You're too ugly.

No wonder no one likes you.

You deserve it.

Stop complaining and live with it.

Maybe if you weren't so ugly people would like you.

It's all your fault.

I was convinced that I was being over dramatic and that hurt me even more. In the sixth grade I became an anorexic. In the sixth grade I started cutting. And here I am, writing this, years later and I do the same things. Bullying is not acceptable in any way. All of the "harmless" jokes can kill someone. It doesn't matter how old someone is, it still hurts.