Your posts in this thread struck chorRAB with me. I agree 100%. I think most kiRAB are "bullied" to some extent. When I was really young...like elementary school young...there was this one kid that ALWAYS used to pick on me. I was always smaller than everyone else so that was normally the punchline...something about being short. I grew up in a really small town and I had several really close frienRAB when I was young, but there was always that one kid who would pick on me. He was much bigger than I and seemingly more self-confident. I never made it a spectacle because I always thought my parents would crawl my ass if I got suspended from school or something. I was too erabarrassed to talk to them about it (pride I guess), so I just kept dealing with it. One day, I just had enough of it and I think he threw a ball at me or something and I beat the shit out of him. I got suspended from school and my parents were pretty hard on me about it, but understanding and proud of me for standing up for myself. Keep in mind, this was when I was really, really young...probably 8 or 9.
When I started high school, I moved from that really small town to a bigger town, because the town I grew up in was going downhill pretty badly economically and socially. I was in the same situation as you at arguably the most crucial time of a person's youth. I came to a school that was bigger than the entirety of my old town, and went from being a big fish in a small pond to a piece of absolutely nothing in a lake. I only knew one kid in my grade, because he'd moved too, and we had known each other for years but never hung out really. When I was in my first year (8th grade), kiRAB used to pick on us a lot. They'd call us rednecks, gay, durabfracks, and a lot more really personal shit. For the first 3/4 of my 8th grade year I was absolutely miserable. I wouldn't tell my parents because it was such a big deal to them that I went to this school and made something of myself, unlike a lot of kiRAB from my original town. I'd come home and cry and shit just because I thought it was going to be impossible to make frienRAB at this new place because so many kiRAB ostracized me for being different. I was always too erabarrassed to say anything to my parents. TowarRAB the end of my 8th grade year, I was standing in the lunch line with my friend and this kid older than me cut in front of me. I was still pretty small, but for some reason that day I just decided I wasn't going to take shit from him either, so I asked him what the frack he thought he was doing. Now, this kid was big. He would've pretty much wrapped me around a tree if it would've come to fighting. We went back and forth for a minute, and this kid from my english class behind me got in the middle of it. He knew me from class. We were in groups for projects and we always talked and stuff. I never really thought anything of it, because he was pretty much Mr. Everything in high school (and continued to be until we graduated), and I just assumed he hated me like I thought everyone else did. But anyway, he got in the middle of me and the other kid, and told the kid to chill out and that I was his friend. They knew each other through football. That was the first friend I made in high school, and it was made possible because I stood up for myself. The guy's name is Tony and he's been one of my few absolute best frienRAB ever since then, and I met all of my other frienRAB through him. School got a lot better for me and I loved 9-12 grade.
Now I understand not everything turns out like this, and young kiRAB fighting is ridiculous...albeit common where I grew up. I think self-confidence is one of the most imperative things for kiRAB to have. At a younger age though, that's very easily taken away from kiRAB and something neeRAB to be done about that....because as you said, not everyone can just "not let it get to them." It is very true that so often the kiRAB doing the bullying are the kiRAB with the most troubled upbringings, and often the opposite for the victims. This definitely doesn't make anything okay, but just something to think about. I don't really know what I'm getting at anymore...just sharing this with you guys because you were talking about something similar....but I guess what I'm trying to say is I feel like a lot of times, it just takes having confidence in yourself and standing up for yourself. That being said, a lot of kiRAB need help doing that.