GETTING BULLIED by Paolo Costea

I hear all these stories about people getting bullied. I know it’s bad but I never really think
about it. I never really thought about it until I realized that I have been bullied.

All the bullying stories are mostly about kids getting bullied in middle school. It makes
sense, but bullying can happen at any age. Whenever I say this I laugh because I think it
genuinely sounds funny but what I was feeling at the time sucked. I got bullied in preschool.
Physically. This bully would attack me, poke me in the eyes, and grab me by the arms, swing
me by the arms, and throw me to the dirt. It only hurt half the time (he was not a stronk boy).
Although, I mostly thought:

“Why’s he doing this? I just wanna play. What did I ever do to you?”

I grew up in a house with great parents that resented all violence that wasn’t self
defense but I didn’t know how to defend myself back then so I was scared and confused. This
happened a lot. I would be minding my own business and then suddenly, I was in a movie
scene. He would walk up in front of me, look at me, and I’m not kidding about this, with sputter
coming out of his mouth, he would ask me this: “Going somewhere, punk?”

Then he’d try to beat me up. Sometimes I outran him, sometimes I didn’t.

The thing I think about the most is What were the teachers doing, that they couldn’t help
me from getting bullied?

I would be getting bullied at recess. Even if it was only for like 60 seconds, it was
bullying. Were they even ready to be preschool teachers? I didn’t go to a bad preschool, but I’ve
always questioned if the teachers paid attention to what was important. I’m not saying all the
preschool teachers at my school were bad. Some saw and helped, but usually the newer ones
didn’t. Now I think What if they needed more training before they became teachers? What if they
just never WANTED to get involved, worried that they’d mess something up? If you think that’s
bad, they also didn’t know who to blame. One day, the bully told me that it would be funny to
flush Legos down the toilet and that he did it all the time. I tried it. I know you might think that I
should have had more common sense but… I was almost 4. Basically all you want to do at that
time is to be funny and play. Mostly though, I was scared of him getting angry or violent if I didn’t
do it.

The next day, I told my friend about the hilarious thing I’d done. He told on me and I got
in trouble. They asked me why I did it. I said “I don’t know.”

I did know, though. I was scared. To this day, I don’t know why I never told anyone. After
that, whenever the bully came to school, I never felt safe. I had to look out for him if I was
playing with my friends. I thought this would go on forever.

One day, after the bully hadn’t bugged me in a while. I was walking to the carpet to hear
the daily schedule. Just a little innocent Paolo on his way, not bothering anyone. I was minding
my own business, when suddenly BAM!

For a few seconds I was blinded and felt pain in my eye.

I could hear someone say “See that? THAT’S how you poke someone in the eye!”

It was the bully. I couldn’t handle this anymore, I started to swing at him until the nicest
teacher in the school came over and sorted it all out. I realized it was no use not telling what he
had done. So I told her EVERYTHING he’d done. He jaw fell. She immediately contacted my
mom and told her what had happened. That night, when my mom came to pick me up, we didn’t
leave immediately. She asked me

“Is that kid still here.”

I said yes. I expected her to start yelling at him in Spanish, but she just waited. We
waited… and waited...

“Mami, what are we waiting for?” I asked, “Is that the mother of that bully?”

She replied, “Yeah,”

Now, I was even more worried. She was going to start yelling in Spanish at another
adult! I braced myself for what would probably be the scariest thing I’ve ever witnessed, and
then, it didn’t happen. My mom politely greeted her, and they introduced themselves. Ok, I
thought, they might get mad at each other now. Better warn my friends… I expected an
argument to break out between them, and then, the most unexpected thing happened.
“Would you and your son like to a theme park with us, this weekend?” asked my mom.
“Of course! The boys can become friends! I’m so sorry about my son’s behavior.”
There’s no way I’ll become friends with him, I thought.

Soon enough, we were at the theme park. I wasn’t scared that he would hurt me

because both of our moms were there. Our moms were talking and being very nice to each
other while I was silent. I was silent while I got ice cream as well, which wasn’t normal. I would
have shrieked with joy when I heard I was getting ice cream. I just wouldn’t talk to him. Silence.
Then he asked me, “Do you know who Iron-Man is?”

I was surprised at this. I’ve always been a Marvel fan so we started to talk about it. I was
having fun with him and by the time we left, we were great friends. He never bullied me again.
What can you take away from this? It is never okay to bully no matter what form of
bullying it is. Bullying can make people feel sad and alone and we don’t more people than there
already is to get bullied. You can stop bullying by standing up to them, telling a trusted adult, or,
the way I got help doing and may be the hardest way, making a friend.