My story may be different then everybody else's, I'm simply telling my experience. I was bullied from elementary through Jr. High. I was always the shy kid who hated any from of confrontation and I never had the best social skills. Before junior year of high school I was really small as I hadn't gone through puberty yet, a little socially awkward, chubby, and overly emotional (too much of any emotion would cause me to cry, sadness, happiness, anger, etc.) My parents tried their best to help me during that rough time of my life, but there is only so much they can do. One day in Jr. High we just got done with football practice (hated conflict, loved to play football) and the kid that always bullied me comes up toe and pushes me into the front of my locker. All of the other kids started watching and started laughing at me. I asked him to please stop and he did it again. I started to cry a little because I was getting so angry. He ended up pushing me a 3rd time and I snapped. I turned around and got a pretty descent hit on the bottom of his jaw and sent him falling over the bench and onto the floor. I had never gotten violent with anybody before, as I was always pretty shy. He struggles to get up after a few seconds walks away. The entire locker room was staring at me now, but no one was laughing at me anymore. I just looked around and got changed out of my gear and walked out. After that happend people stopped messing with me. As cliche as it sounds, being bullied taught me to grow up. This kid had made my life a living hell before he pushed me a little too far. After that he never messed with me again, we even talked to each other every once in a while after that. Bullying fucking sucks, I know because I went through it. But personally, I'm glad I was bullied... I know I know, I sound like a fucking asshole for saying that... But what bullying taught me was that sometimes you just have to stand up for yourselves. At a certain point, only you can fix things. My mom and dad tried their hardest to make my life better, then even started the process of moving me to a private school in elementary, but I didn't want to go because I was too scared of the change. After that incident, I didn't suddenly become a cool kid, I never became a cool kid. What I did get was the respect of people who used to mess with me all day and make my life hell. At the time I felt like life sucked and that it would never get better. But it does, life finds a way and things got better. That event gave me confidence in myself that I had never had before. Hell I even managed to get my first girlfriend just before I moved on to high school. I have no idea where I would be today had I not gained that confidence in Jr. High. My life is great now, sure it's not perfect, but whose is? All I know is that yes, I'm glad I was bullied. Because it gave me the strength to become who I am today.