Bullied.

I just read Single Dad Laughing's post about being bullied http://www.danoah.com/2010/10/memoirs-of-bullied-kid.html and I thought I would share my response to his post on here:

I was bullied at school. It was unforgiving, unrelenting. And when I grew up the first thing I did was get the hell away from the area and get some 'therapy' as soon as I could afford it.
Many years later I returned home and while my dad did some work on my car I took the bus into town. When I got on the bus the only seat left was next to the girl who had been pretty much the ringleader of my bullies. "You know what", I thought "you are not going to scare me any more" and I sat down next to her. It was one of the best things I have ever done.
She recognised me and she said sorry. I sat there in something close to disbelief while she poured her heart out about what she'd done and why she'd done it. Twenty minutes on that bus changed my life, I realised I wasn't the sad one, I wasn't the weak or ugly or any of those things they made me believe and I certainly wasn't one of life's victims but she was.
I see her now from time to time. I ask how her kids are, she asks about mine, we don't bring up the past. And I always come away feeling uncomfortable, life dealt her a really really rough hand. I wish there had been someone who really could have been there for her the way my family were for me.
And something else I really wish? That every bullied kid could get their twenty minutes on a bus too.