Bully

I always tell myself that I’m a resilient person. That’s what my friends also think of me, someone who doesn’t cry easily, a war freak and someone who’s not afraid to tell her thoughts. I still try to think that I am that girl. Until one day, I realized that perhaps that’s only half of what I am. As I travel along the busy roads of Metro Manila to look for a job, I always see people who make me to think why is it that humans are created differently?

When I was a high school student, I don’t regard myself as a popular student who bullies others extremely. I am in the middle. I love it when my friends and I tease a lot of nerds in the campus and make them do stupid things. I grew up in a private school so you expect that students there have a lot of money. Being one of the boys, we had a special liking to a transferee. She is weird and not good looking. We always ask her to treat us. When we discovered that she had a huge thing for one of our friends, we made her life totally miserable.

I even had this classmate whom I always called “poknat”. He has a small spot in his head that has no hair and when my other classmate told me that it is called ‘poknat’, I made fun of him all the time. He hated me. I don’t know why but during that time, I despised gay people. He turns out to be one so I really did cursed his existence.

Then, I had to transfer to a public school when I was a junior. My family had to move to Cavite in the middle of the school year. There was no private school who accepts a transferee. I was literally hated by everyone. They hated the Cattleya notebooks, the cellphone, the Pilot ballpen, the Esprit bag and all the stuff I have. They even hated the way I talk. They hate it when I speak in English. Nobody talked to me during my first day there except the biggest nerd in the class. I tried to be friendly but still nobody liked me but my girl-nerd classmate. Until it came to a point when I realized that some girls in class are trying to bully me.

Being an ex-bully, I knew that they where up to something serious. They would wait for me outside the gates during dismissal and would make fun of me during class hours. I felt scared. But I knew I had to do something to stop this. I am not someone they can toy around.

One afternoon, when they were making “parinig” (they talk about you loudly and annoyingly) I came up to them, I walked to their leader and pointed my finger at her and told her, “You don’t know who you’re dealing with, if you want to live long, shut the f*** up!”

After that, I was afraid. No----I was terrified. I thought they’ll wait for me after class and put me in a sack. But it turned out extraordinarily different. They became my friends. They told me that they liked me. Of course some of them would still have negative impressions and opinions. But I totally gained their respect.

So, there I was again, bullying other kids in school. Making fun of silly little girls who doesn’t know how to do their make up right. Making the lives of the nerds miserable. I loved it.

But I never did anything against my girl-nerd classmate. She was nice to me when I was alone and hated by the others. I guess I somehow protected her.

Now, it makes me really wonder why is it that there should be division in the world? Why are there people who thinks that they are better than others. I became one of those a long time ago. Now I know that being a part of something like that may be cool before but now, its not funny at all.

We are created equally. It just happened that some are born rich, some are poor. Some are pretty, some are not. Some are smart, some are not. Some just wanted to live a simple and quiet lives, while some wanted to be popular and better.

Whatever it is, I hope that wherever a person is placed, that person will make the best out of what he has. Be happy and quit making lives of others difficult. Live happy.