When I was 15 years old, a new girl transferred to my school. I introduced myself, and we became best friends. We shared secrets and hung out with each other. We would go out with our other friends, laugh together, and do things that teenagers do.
Suddenly, everything changed. My best friend started hanging out with some bad people. They would skip school, and do other bad things. Although I was invited to hang out with her and her new friends, I didn’t want to do the things they were doing. I made a very difficult choice and decided to no longer be friends.
My “Friend” The Bully
She was not happy with me at all. She started to threaten me, saying she was going to hit me and also get other people onto me. I thought to myself, “What did I do to deserve this?” The bullying went on for a couple of months and it was just constant. I felt betrayed, upset, down, and depressed. My bullying friend was targeting me.
My life was falling apart. I couldn’t understand why people could be so cruel and so hurtful. I felt like my life wasn’t worth living anymore. At this point, I started to starve myself. I lost a lot of weight and the doctors told me that if I kept doing this, I would become anorexic.
This mean friend got worse and the bullying moved beyond school. She would stand outside my house and cause trouble, and then she would say a lot of abusive stuff. I felt so scared. I was letting myself go, letting them win. What could I do? If I went to school, I got abuse. If I stayed at home, I got abuse.
Enough Was Enough
On the last day of school, she passed a note during my exam saying, “Be outside after school because I will be waiting for you.” After that, I couldn’t concentrate — I was distracted, upset, and so scared. I asked the school to ring my mum to pick me up from school. That night, this girl brought other kids to my house. I thought to myself, “Enough is enough. I’m going out there and finishing this.” I had so much anger, so much hurt that it started to get to me.
I went out and tried to speak with her, and one of her friends smacked me in the face. My nine-year-old sister was there and she ran off because she was scared I was going to get hurt. I felt like I was going to lose my temper. Thankfully, my parents called the police; they had had enough of seeing me get hurt. The police went to the girl’s home and gave them a warning. And the bullying ended.
I am now 19. My life is much better now. I have a great fiancé, a beautiful eight-month-old little girl, and a perfect house. I am a healthy weight. To anyone else who is going through bullying by a friend or anyone, I would like to say this: Never give up. Speak out. Other people will listen. Don’t be afraid. No matter how tough the bullying gets, you can find support in so many ways. Stay strong and be proud of who you are. That’s the only way to get through it.
And just remember, life does get better
