Dear High School Bully,

I know you all too well. I’m sure everybody has had an experience with a bully before. It doesn’t look good on you. Putting others down, to lift yourself up, is not something you should be proud of. I received many comments from you about my race, and other things, that were very hurtful. So... now I’m wondering, why did you do that? What did you gain out of it?

Despite all of the pain that you caused me, I am grateful for that and you taught me a few lessons.

You’ve taught me to be the better person and not let it bother me. Looking back at it now, I think that it was foolish of me to let one person’s idea of who I am, effect how I view myself. I can’t undo what you said, but it doesn’t matter to me now because it was in the past. I’ve learned to live by the quote “5 by 5 rule. If it won’t matter in 5 years, don’t spend more than 5 minutes worrying about it”.

You’ve taught me that everything happens for a reason. Again, you bullied me at a time where I was not very confident in myself. Since then, though, I have learned that if I don’t believe in myself, then how should I expect others to believe in me? This experience, though learned the hard way, has helped me become the person that I want to be.

You’ve taught me that my opinion of myself matters more than what others think of me. This is probably the most important thing to me because, in the end, the longest relationship that I will have, is the one with myself. I need to bring in the good vibes and let out the bad vibes.

So, yes, I am thanking you all that you have done to hurt my feelings. I have grown more as a person ever since, and I want to thank you for that.

Sincerely,

The Girl You Bullied in High School