Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yes, during primary school and by the one of the girls I was friends with. She was the "leader" of our group and we all had to do what she said. I unfortunately had the habit of doing the opposite. She snapped when I refused to do her school work during class and started verbally abusing me (in the way that only nine year olds can do to other nine year olds) and leaving me out of everything.

My mum, bless her, stepped in when I told her what happened and the teacher helped us sort everything out.

We eventually made up and became friends again, but I still wouldn't do anything she wanted me to do (unless it was a purely friendly request), and the other girls in our group still couldn't understand how I was able to always stand up to her.

It may not seem like much (especially when thinking about it now) but it had a great impact on me.

In middle school I was harassed daily for the way I dressed. Before school, in class, after school. No one made any attempt to help me. The teachers ignored it. My friends and I would be walking around town on weekends and we would go out of our way to avoid groups of people we were in school with. Then, in high school, it all stopped. No one cared about you besides you in our high school.
I want to say I've gotten over those three years of ridicule and verbal (sometimes physical) abuse, but I haven't. So many years later and I'm just now regaining the confidence and spirit I had before Grade 7. It does have a lasting impact on a person. I changed the way I acted and dressed to be boring, to go unnoticed. I'm still incredibly shy and go out of my way to avoid people. A little voice inside my head still tells me that I'm on a lower plain than everyone else, and that everyone else is somehow 'better' than I am. The bullies were all guys, too, so I have a very hard time feeling comfortable around guys I don't know.

... sh*t, it feels kind of good getting that out. I guess I've never thought about how middle school actually changed me.