An Experience of Bullying- Nashville, TN

To me, bullying is no more than degrading someone to become a worse version of themselves all because of the other person’s insecurities giving him or her every reason to torment other lives for their sake. I am going to take you back to when I was in seventh grade at a middle school in Martin, Tennessee. It was morning time and I was waiting at a bus stop near the apartment complex for our bus. I was at the end of line when the bus finally arrived so I was already aware that majority of the seats were going to be taken before I got into the bus. One thing that I disliked about the bus was the fact that students of grades 6 through 12, yep.. you heard that right, were getting on the buses across the school district meaning that most of the time the buses would awfully full almost every time from the time that I get on mine in the morning to when I get on my bus in the afternoon after school is over. I am not a claustrophobic person, but I don’t appreciate seeing how I always have to sit by someone else no matter what time it was and where the bus was headed to. I also need to clarify that I had severe social anxiety around the time so this did not help my situation whatsoever. So, when I entered the bus knowing that I wanted to sit near the front, all of the seats were taken. Then, I continue on and see if there are any available seats and I was facing some type of adversity, because I still couldn’t find any open seat for myself. At this point, I had to sit in the back with the “careless” kids who misbehaved frequently which would be the last thing I would want to deal with in a school morning. Then I asked someone if they can move their backpack so that I can sit next to that person. He ended up saying no and that was the beginning of the end of what was happening here. I am still standing up in the walkway as the bus driver starts getting this bus to school and looks up at his mirror to see what is going on. To make matters worse, a girl who I won’t say the name of, tells me to move my backpack away from her face right away. Before I can even do anything to cope with these problems, I began to start crying for no reason at all but mind you, I had social anxiety, therefore I could not express myself well with words in front of strangers. Around this time, the boy ends up allowing me to sit down next to him, but of course pokes fun at me because it is not every day you see someone sobbing over two issues that can easily be solved if you could just handle them separately which seemed impossible for me at the time. More people didn’t take my crying light-heartedly and instead just got mad for me crying unnecessarily. I eventually switch seats with the boy and quickly tell my mom that I am getting bullied and she confirmed that she was headed to my school. Throughout the bus ride, I boohoo cried from pretty much home to the middle school, so it was a minor situation that seemed major to me, because it had never happened before. Once I got to Martin Middle and saw my mom, I frantically started pointing at the boy who was messing with me on the bus and he looked certainly terrified of what he was seeing. My mom drops me off at my dad’s job and lets me spend the rest of the day outside of school with him. During the time, I really thought to myself of how I could have approached the situation at first before I made any bold moves that would make my issues any better or worse and just the fact how many people cannot understand what this person is really going through and find it humorous while I, as the person dealing with anxiety find it very humiliating. However, I have grown since then and even made better grades throughout 8th grade to 12th grade and now getting into college life at Fisk University as a freshman looking forward to the awesome opportunities and people to encounter with. By the way, I have lost most or nearly all of my social anxiety I ever had up until this past year and making good use of my socializing with people who I am unfamiliar with but beginning to understand our similarities and differences. I do influence others to make a habit of being more social around those who appear to be friendly even if you are introverted and have a few acquaintances that know you. If you are being bullied constantly from one person or numerous people, let someone know who can contact someone else of higher power if that makes sense to resolve this form of harassment. After all, a bullied person who does not get treated for past experiences that were not the brightest have thoughts of doing deplorable acts towards themselves or others. So I’ll ask again to not bully anyone no matter what, because it is too inhumane and disrespectful even if it’s for laughs and not as serious as others may think. I am glad to share this story with you and I hope you have a great day!