Telling my story when I was bullied

Hi humans,
I am here to share my story on when I was bullied. I lived in Italy during my childhood and fitting in was extremely hard. The bullying started in elementary and middle school. I would be lying to you if I told you that it is easy for me to tell you my story….it’s not, It’s very hard for me to talk about because it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Thinking about everything that I have been through still breaks my heart.

So here it goes:
When I was younger, I was small compared to others and I didn’t look like everyone else either. I wasn’t the pretty girl that everyone wanted to be around. I had frizzy curly hair and other things that didn’t fit the apparent pretty girl status back then. I was the girl that everyone liked to talk smack about and make fun of because I was a little bit different. The friends that I had turned their backs on me because they wanted to be a part of the “it” crowd. It got really bad each day going to school because I had people tell me to my face that everyone was against me and they hated me without any reason. My grades were slipping and I went from an outgoing person to someone who just ended up just keeping to herself. I was called names and people were just flat out mean. One night before we moved to the United States, my class went to a dinner with all of the student’s parents and our teacher. My classmates took it upon themselves to sit away from me. My mother confronted everyone and as a result they were rude to her back. No one was kind and it was one of the most embarrassing moments. I felt low, I felt defeated, I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I didn’t stand up for myself and I felt voiceless. The sad part is that not one of them have gotten to know me and see how great of a person I was. It sucked and it was painful. I wish no one would have to endure the pain that I was dealing with.

When people talk smack about me as an adult I revert back to my childhood bullying days. It’s hard still, but since those days….I have told myself that I would stand up for myself and I did just that. I am always a work in progress, but I am proud of myself because each day I become a stronger individual. I truly believe that others who have been bullied can overcome it also. No matter what, I have learned that I am great exactly as I am and they missed on getting to know a great person. Different or not, everyone is great exactly as they are and that’s what matters.

If you are reading this, I am hoping that telling my story will help you not feel alone and tell you that it’s not you. I’ve realized that I did nothing wrong to the people that bullied me, it was them and it was their loss. They missed out on getting to know someone great. The bullies missed out on me and they missed out on you. To end, I want to say to always choose love over hate.

Much Love,

Julia

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Story submitted by Julia.