Oh wow, I am so sorry. I don't really want to imagine what would have happened if I had been bullied for that long..
Indeed, I was made fun of for maybe 10 minutes; and it completely changed me. Back in 2005, last day of school (8th grade), many of us had gathered in a park in order to hang out and just spend time together before the start of the summer holidays. And then, the girl I had a crush on for the past two years, approached me with 3-4 other friends of her. She told me that she really liked me. It felt so thrilling and exciting and I was so happy and I told her that I liked her as well...
And then they left, and met up with a group of another ~30 people or so, maybe a 100 meters away. They all started laughing.. I felt so empty, I wanted to disappear, when one of them came to tell me "Oh by the way it was a joke that she likes you".
That summer I started playing MMORPGs, did not go to the beach once, just stayed home. Indeed, I spent the rest of high school pretty much isolated (although luckily eventually I replaced MMORPGs with actually studying). Whenever a girl showed interest in me, I immediately avoided her as much as possible, since I thought she just wanted to make fun of me. And it took 8 years, maybe a bit longer, until I started trusting people again.
So, why did I write all of this? Partially, because it came into memory after reading this thread. But more importantly, I am really scared by the fact, that the bullying I experienced was so so minor compared to the other stories here; yet it affected me so fundamentally.
Indeed, I was made fun of for maybe 10 minutes; and it completely changed me. Back in 2005, last day of school (8th grade), many of us had gathered in a park in order to hang out and just spend time together before the start of the summer holidays. And then, the girl I had a crush on for the past two years, approached me with 3-4 other friends of her. She told me that she really liked me. It felt so thrilling and exciting and I was so happy and I told her that I liked her as well...
And then they left, and met up with a group of another ~30 people or so, maybe a 100 meters away. They all started laughing.. I felt so empty, I wanted to disappear, when one of them came to tell me "Oh by the way it was a joke that she likes you".
That summer I started playing MMORPGs, did not go to the beach once, just stayed home. Indeed, I spent the rest of high school pretty much isolated (although luckily eventually I replaced MMORPGs with actually studying). Whenever a girl showed interest in me, I immediately avoided her as much as possible, since I thought she just wanted to make fun of me. And it took 8 years, maybe a bit longer, until I started trusting people again.
So, why did I write all of this? Partially, because it came into memory after reading this thread. But more importantly, I am really scared by the fact, that the bullying I experienced was so so minor compared to the other stories here; yet it affected me so fundamentally.