in elementary school and middle school, i was an asrehole to others and others were arseholes to me. i know that those days were "innocent" times, but doesn't stop the incidents from being wrong. there were two girls, jackie and shauna, that were the butt of jokes in elementary and middle school respectively. people did some really hurtful things to these to girls (nothing violent) during the times. several years ago, i couldn't help but to think how these two women are today. as a matter of fact, i subscribed to classmates.com some time ago and saw that there was a jackie (with the same last name of the one that i went to elementary school with) that went to a local highschool in the neighborhood that we used to live in. i actually emailed her to ask how she was doing and to apologize for all of the crap that she had gone through in her childhood. i was about 20-21 at the time i sent this email. i never received a response, but i wished her the best. i couldn't blame her. some people spend years of their adulthood trying to get over childhood traumas. i'm sure she just wanted to forget about everything back then. when your a child, you don't know better... well... sometimes you do, but you do it anyway. do any of you ever remember teasing or being cruel to childhood aquaintences? have you ever had any contact with any of them? you don't have to go into specific details about what you did, but do any of you remember any being the "picker" or the "pickee" or both?
My best story is of a girl in 5th grade that would tug at my hair from behind in class and used to drive me nuts. I started making fun of her nose, so I think she eventually stopped. About 10-15 years later I saw her in an ad or photo for the Houston Oilers... she was a Derrick Doll. So let this be a lesson : let girls pull on parts of your body early in life... you may not regret it later in life.
i made fun of the way another kid looked when i was in first grade...his mother kinda confronted my mom and me about it at a birthday party...best thing that could have ever happened to me. i learned a big lesson. i run into the guy from time to time...he brings it up everytime. even after all these years. i'm so sorry i was ever such a jerk..even if i was very young. it still bothers me. but honestly...innocent? yeah, i was a child...but i knew what i was doing. i knew it wasn't right.
I would think most of us have a Kevin Bacon Flatliners story to share with everyone. Seriously though, I too feel bad about some of the stupid $hit I used to pull on people back in school, but I guess i'ts just a part of growing up. We can only hope.
Max, I think that it's pretty twisted that the guy keeps reminding you of this. Maybe he does so in a "good-natured" way, but after 20+ years (I'm going to assume that you are older than 26 -as most lawyers are), he needs to let it go. In 5th grade, I picked on this one guy mercilessly. I'd spend the entire recess harrassing him and trying to "kick his ass:. One time I even hid his English books and as a result, the teacher (who had a strict "bring your books to class" policy) gave him zeroes on a bunch of assignments. It culminated in him challenging me to a fight in the middle of class, which I stupidly accepted. Naturally, the moment I grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the coat closet, the teacher walked in. I'll never understand how I avoided a paddling (I think we had some event the next day and the teacher didn't want to have to deal with the hassle of disciplinary issues at that time)
I teased a girl in the 7th grade because she wore the same jeans every day. The jeans had "Texas-Dillo" on the back with a sequin picture of an armadillo. I was a stupid kid and it never occured to me that maybe her family had money problems and were only doing the best they could. I only teased her to keep the bullies off my ass. The same year, a guy I sat next to on the bus used to kick my ass every morning. The bus driver would always look the other way. I saw the guy about 4 years ago. He didn't say anything about it but he was very nice. I took it as his way of saying sorry. We're guys, so we don't talk about stuff like that.
I agree...but ultimately i'm to blame for that. I agree that it sounds less than healthy...and you're right, it is done in a good-natured way. I'll tell my son that story very early in his life!
I was the one who got picked on. When I was in pre-school, I had very short hair. Some kids said I looked like a boy. In elementary school, I got picked on because I was in ballet (which continued for 13 years). After that, I was just teased for being a girl, being short, being in band, being really smart... I did some picking too...but not really on any one person that I can recall.
In grade 5, I was pretty mean to this one girl because of the way she looked. I even made up a song: "Yer so gross that you make me puke" "Yer so gross that you make me puke" "Yer so ugly.. Yer so fat.." "Yer so gross that you make me puke" Isn't that terrible? Anyway, she got upset and stopped coming to class, so eventually the Principal confronted me about it. Ended up apologizing and stopping the harassment immediately. Afterwards, we sort of became friends (well, not really friends, but we ran in the same social circles and were always nice to each other).
As someone who took a ton of abuse as a child of a mixed marriage, I have long since forgiven people for their school-time trangressions. Kids by nature attack anything different than themselves so you can't fault them for it, especially if their upbringing was not in an open-minded setting.
kids never teased me because I never gave a **** what they said to me. But I still tease people all the time. I know this 16 year old chick right now, and every time we talk I always have to make some reference to how she is a slut. One time I teased my best friend so severly he was actually crying and getting pissed off. that was kind of a moment that made me feel like **** and then I backed off.
Yeah, I have some friends who try their hardest to make other friends cry. Well actually, they don't try, but they are themselves. For instance, one Italian friend took an Indian friend(who had been called 'Osama' and 'terrorist' frequently, but didn't mind it because he would just get them suspended; interesting way of doing things, btw)'s drink every day. Eventually he broke down and cried one day. Kind of funny. Kind of really funny. Then another true A$$hole told this a bit overweight person that she 'absorbs buildings'. Sure it was mean, but it was so incredibly hilarious. She cried, but then again she is emotionally unstable. I used to be the blunt of the joke for years, being the small skinny kid. The worst was when I moved here to Bama and decided to go to the rich preppy private (predominately) white school. Big mistake. First day of school, what did the stereotypical 'hick' say to me? "I hunt n*****". That pretty much defined my year there. I was always made fun of for, well, being Jewish. It really bothered me then. I think part of the problem was that they were trying to see if I could take their **** or see how far they could go before I broke down. I never did, but I did end up going to the headmaster reporting these problems almost daily. So the next year I switched over to the public system, which wasn't really any better. The education was terrible anywhere I went. But eventually, I got used to the 'Jew' label and realized that only a few idiots were using it to make fun at me, which didn't bother me anymore. So somehow during that time, I am now known as 'The Jew' by almost everyone. Figure that one out.
Closest thing to teasing for me was with a cousin of mine. We were both little, and for some reason I wanted to box with him. I agreed I wouldn't sock him in the face if he didn't do the same. Only body shots so neither of us would get in trouble. So just as he opened his hands up and was covering up his body, I socked him in the face, and he fell flat on the ground. He was a fat kid, and I never teased him cuz' of it, but he was only like 10 and was already over 200 lbs atleast. I swear the ground felt like it shook after that hit because he was so big. I didn't feel bad about it, even when he was lieing there on the ground for some reason. I just socked him real good on the face. My knuckles nor hand felt any pain, but I know he was down for a good 5 minutes. Immediately after my other cousins were teasing me for socking him in the face when we originally agreed not to, to which I replied, his face was completely left unguarded. That cousin still teases me about what I did to him to this day, and you can tell he still is sort of worried about me doing it again since he still keeps his arms tensed up around his chest just waiting to cover up his face when I'm around. Otherwise I was more obnoxious as a kid then anything. Never really tried to hurt anyone.
How's that old saying go? We never feel so tall as when we make others feel small. All kids are cruel because they are trying to establish their place in the natural peck order and they have not yet developed a conscience. I don't think you need to call em up and make your 'tweleve step' apology to them though. Your only doing that to relieve your own guilt. What good is it going to do them? Just living a moral life now is the best thing you can do, at least the other people you deal with now can profit from the lessons you learned at their expense. If you see them at a reunion or something though go out of your way to be cordial.
Moe, What the f*ck? Isn't life hard enough for teenagers without you piling on? If you have sadistic tendencies maybe you need to seek psychiatric counciling.
Did ya erase her writing slate when she wasn't looking? Isn't it funny how old everyone thinks you are? I ain't helping, am I? LOL
