Bullying, Part III

I want to expand on my earlier post.

As a kid, I recall enjoying elementary school.  I don't recall getting bullied until roughly the end of 6th grade.  At that point, I recall a few days of getting chased around by girls who initially pretended to like me but were clearly trying to insult me.  

In 7th grade, I got tweaked pretty regularly by 2-5 kids.  Mostly name-calling and angry words.  Occasionally it got physical; I was not a big kid and I came close to getting beaten down more than once.

I recall hating to go to school in the morning.  I also recall eventually refusing to be in a carpool with one group of bullies; for the life of me I have no idea how my parents ended up with me in that carpool...

I was a pretty geeky junior high school kid.  I didn't dress too well; wore too many hand-me-downs from cousins, passed along by well-meaning but confused parents-of-cousins, and which my well-meaning but confused parents wanted me to wear.  And when I did try to be stylish, it didn't work out too well; this was the 80s, and parachute pants had gone out of style by the time I decided I wanted to wear a pair.

I also reacted to the bullies.  They wanted a reaction and I gave it to them.  I'd look like a fool in the process.

More on what lessons I try to draw from these experience in the next post.