Last Updated on August 31, 2012.
Fighting Back The Bully with TSMMA! How Bullying Almost Destroyed My Life.
It all started in 5th grade when a group of guys and girls began to bully me. I was supposedly “friends” with these people. I was too nice to realize they weren’t my true friends. Every day they would bully me about my weight, and every day when I got picked up from school I was crying. My dad knew something was up when I didn’t have a smile on my face. Yet each day it was the same thing. “You are so fat. You have too much blubber on you.” It hurt alot. I would feel so embarrassed to even look at myself in the mirror. I didn’t even want to be in school anymore. I forced myself to go.
Then in 6th grade it started again. The first couple of months were fine. Then someone made a rumor; “Ryan is only going out with Gabby to make Diana jealous.” Someone made it up, and said I said it. Everyone ganged up on me. They made me feel like an outcast. Each and every minute of the day I was alone. Not even my good friends stood by me. Even kids in the other class that knew the bullies hated me. They started cyber-bullying me. With texts they said they wanted to fight. With email and instant messages, they were harassing me all the time, calling me names. They talked about me behind my back. I felt alone. Liittle by little my self esteem and self confidence gradually diminished. 6th grade was over.
Then 7th came along. Again the first couple of months were fine, and then it started. They hated me. One girl, (I’ll never forget her) started to write notes using every girl’s name she didn’t like. She wrote the most inappropriate things about me and others. Then she said that I wrote a note when it was her all along forging other people’s handwriting. It got so bad that I decided to talk to teachers. We went through this entire process. Talking to teachers, then to Deans, then the Assistant Principle. Yet the notes, the rumors and the talking still continued. Nothing had changed. I was still an outcast. I didn’t talk to many people. But every other day they would be nice to me and I thought wanted to be my friend. I was just too naive to realize they only wanted to get stuff out of me to talk about me and spill my secrets.
Seventh grade ended miserably, and here comes 8th. Everything seemed fine, but early September the notes started again. At this point I was depressed. I was cutting. I had thoughts of suicide. I planned my death. After all of this, even stuff at home that never bothered me before, started to kill me little by little. So at home and at school I was never safe. I was never happy. Finally I told my guidance counselor what had happened and why my thoughts were as bad as they were. Concerned, she told my father. My family got involved and I had to go to a mental hospital for some counseling. Of course I was in tears. The next day, after the hospital I didn’t go to school. I spent it with my father. We went to lunch and then he took me to sign up for Tiger Schulmann’s Mixed Martial Arts classes. Ever since, I’m more confident. I have more self esteem. I’m more assertive and stronger than I ever was. I’ve lost weight and I’m still losing. Tiger Schulmann’s has changed me for the better. It’s helped me get through so much. Ever since that first day in class, I knew my life was better.
Read more testimonials at TSMMA Glendale Blog