I'm very late to this thread, so I'm sure this will never get seen, but here's my story:
I was in High School 25 years ago and was in a very small class of about 80 people. Of those 80 probably half made fun of me every day and 10 or so used to beat me up every chance they got. The teachers didn't step in and stop any of it, if they saw me getting bullied they would just ignore it. I would come out of wherever room I was in when I got the crap kicked out of me and nobody would acknowledge it, no other students, no teachers, nobody. My parents wouldn't acknowledge it when I got home, even though they could obviously see bruises on my face. I guess it was a different time when people thought you had to figure it out yourself, or maybe I was just surrounded by bad people? This went on every day for 4 years, and I literally had zero friends. I could go days or weeks without saying a word and nobody would notice. It was bad enough that even to this day I have self-esteem issues and have trouble trusting people and basically can't make friends. I always assume that they're making fun of me behind my back, even if I know better, I can't get rid of that feeling.
It wasn't until after high school that I realized that I was worth something as a human being, and finally got some self-confidence. Once I figured out that I didn't have to worry about getting beat up if I entered a room alone or that I wouldn't get made fun of every time I got near a group of people I was finally able to relax a little bit and concentrate on bettering myself. I did end up OK in the long run. I always feel that I have to prove that I'm just as good as other people so I ended up very ambitious. Because things were so hard back then, I'm willing to take risks now with my career because no matter what happens I'll never end up where I was back then, and it really has paid off. That's the only good thing to come out of my time in high school.
All the bullying was started by one guy who was also the one that beat me up the most. If it wasn't for him, I would have had a normal time in high school, and probably would have a normal life. He was the cause of my misery and the reason that I still have self-esteem and trust issues. 25 years later and I still have the occasional nightmare about that time.
So what happened to him? I looked him up a few years ago and after high school he went to college and got an MBA. His father made him CEO of his several hundred million dollar construction company. As of a few years ago he drove a Ferrari, was married, and had children. While it doesn't bother me that his life turned out so great, part of me would love to say that he turned out to be a failure or that karma got him in the end. The truth is that life isn't always fair, and that all you can do is either spend your time dwelling on the stuff that happened in the past or try to forget it and move on. We don't have a lot of time on this planet, and I'd rather spend my time trying to make my life the best it can be instead of being mad at the people in the past that hurt me.