Bullying was good for me

We've all seen school shootings on the news. The story is always the same. This boy who was picked on throughout his school years takes a gun and shoots a bunch of other students. I was bullied in school and I could really idenify with the shooter.

Before I started seeking God, I thought that being bullied was the worst experience of my life. I thought that I would never overcome it. Somehow my future employers would find out that I was bullied in high school and discriminate against me. I thought that I would never have any friends as an adult because I hardly had any friends as a kid. Because I was the kid nobody danced with in middle school, I would never have a boyfriend or husband now that I am an adult. All of this was wrong, but I didn't think so as a kid.

I remembered thinking as a kid that I wasn't going to have a great life, but I wanted to be as happy as I possibly could be. I got a degree and got a job that I'm proud of where I can pay my bills. I work out as much as I can, and some men think that I am cute. I also have some friends. Being a victim of bullying didn't scar me for life. In fact, it has made me who I am.

The Bible says that suffering can make people stronger and help them grow. By reading the Bible and praying, I realized that bullying has made me stronger. When I was bullied, I learned that it wasn't the end of the world if someone doesn't like me. In school, I would worry all weekend about the people who were mean to me. I would wonder what I did to make them mad that week, and get mad at myself for making them mad. If someone is mean to me at work, I am usually upset for a few hours and I get over it. They are not worth ruining my weekend over.

I also learned at what point to stop appeasing an angry person. In school, I would do whatever the bully said to do, so he wouldn't beat me up or make fun of me. I finally realized that the only thing that I got from doing all these things was that he wasn't mean to me for that week. I realized that I had to find another way to solve the problem, so I just told my teacher this and she took care of it. When I run across people like this at my job, I just tell my manager and she takes care of it. Also sometimes people will be mean to me to try to get me to do what they want and because I have been bullied I recognize this. When they try to do that, it makes me dig my heels in the ground and tell them no. Because I will NEVER give in to them again.

Yes, bullying helped make me a stronger person, but I wouldn't have realized this if I didn't read the Bible. In fact if I hadn't looked for God, I would probably be curled up in my closet feeling sorry for myself-or worse in prison because I shot those losers.