Has anyone ever been bullied?

What triggered in me the idea about talking about  bullying with you is the American Idol TV show.  One contestant of 10 years old won the golden ticket to the next level and she mentioned that she had been bullied.  The judge then pushed the button as if to say that this should shut any of them up when you are successful. 

A subject that is popular today is bullying.  What about bullying that is related to mental illness?

I believe that any form of abuse can trigger mental illness.  I am no doctor but I believe that social interaction influences our mental health.  Just don't take my word for it.  In my case it is chemical imbalance. My question to all these doctors is:  What causes the chemical imbalance in the first place?  What about trauma of some kind?

Anyway, I was what is called today, bullied.  I wasn't bullied online because it had not happened yet.  It was in the 70's.  I was bullied physically, just as bad.  We need to open up about this in our society.  Too many emotions are repressed in individuals today which brings depression and anger that is volatile and can become dangerous.  Each one of us is responsible for dealing with their own emotions and consequently actions.

I will describe my experience with being bullied.  As some of you who know me.  I am a baker by trade.  During my apprenticeship as a pastry chef in Brussels, Belgium I attended two schools.  The first one I attended I last one year because of the abuse.  It was wild, those students, they told me, didn't like how studious I was and therefore decided to 'distract' me.  They call me "names" by writing them in my glass case, or dropped my briefcase from the third floor of the building and mistreated me.  You see, I can write about it today without worry and anger in my heart.  Long ago, I gave up the emotions attach to this and it's no longer sad.

I was only 14 and these guys were around 18 years old.  One of them, got the best of me and one day I wanted to put an end to this and one of them confronted me for a fist fight, he was 18 years old.  I ended up teaching him a lesson and hit him right in the face with everybody watching.  Later on one of those guys started as a student at my other school and one day teased me with a chef knife as the teacher had slipped out of the class.  I don't know how I did it but somehow manoeuvring the knife I managed to have him grab the blade and he cut his hand.

The moral of the story is that bullying will always catch up to you...So quit it!

Finally, here is my poem about bullying.

Bullied

Bernard Demaere

 

Inside my glass case

They wrote names.

Names that were not my own,

Not my own,

They had fun doing it too…

 

They dropped my briefcase

From the third floor.

They mocked and mocked…

And laughed some more...

Till one day,

In my heart,

I said:

“No more!”

 

As I came

Face to face

With one of them;

I was only fourteen,

He was only eighteen,

He punched me

In the face.

I took my best shot,

And hit him back.

He was surprised

And they all backed out.

 

My word to you is:

“You were not meant to be

A bull or a fly,

You were meant to be…

A butterfly.”