What Is a Bully?

Melissa Otow[pic 1]

31 October 2016

AP English 6

Definition Essay

        What is a bully?  That all depends on which side of the action you’re on.  Many people assume that bullying is a negative behavior; however, sometimes it can open new doors.  A bully causes passion to help those in need and to stop the activities that harm people.  A bully causes compassion for those that have experienced or are experiencing what happened to you.  A bully causes a change in view of the people that surround you every day.  A bully causes negative responses, but changes the view of life as a whole and show the real person inside.

        Although I was bullied for six and a half years, I am thankful every day for those years because it has developed a passion not many people have, the passion to stop one of the main causes of suicide among children and teens.  In the fourth grade there was a girl that started teasing my friend and I, but neither of us thought anything of it.  It only got worse as the months dragged on.  I remember when it reached its peak; I would come home and cry on my mom’s shoulder for hours.   It got so bad that she took action for me and talked to the principle, who got it to stop.  Afterwards, I began to learn to stick up for myself and those around me.  I began to work with different organizations to stop bullying, one of the ways that I can help those that are being bullied stick up for themselves because if there was one thing that I learned, it was that silence is not an option.

        For part of those six and a half years I saw a few of my friends get bullied both verbally and physically causing empathy to build for those that are bullied.  During the seventh grade, one of my friends fell victim to physical bullying in the back staircase of Sutter Middle School.  Grabbing her neck and slamming her against the lockers, an eighth grade boy choked her.  Red and puffy eyes, as well as a red handprint around her neck, I knew I had to cheer her up to take her mind off the problem.  As a result, I acknowledged that, although most victims of bullying hate sympathy, sometimes all people need is someone who will be there to comfort them.

        In those years of being bullied I found my views of the people in the world changing.  In the fifth grade, a girl verbally bullied me because of the way I “acted.”  What I didn’t realize until several years later was that she had no friends at the time as she was new and the one friend she did have spent a lot more time with me than her.  During eighth grade I was bullied because I wasn’t being supportive of a former friend that was admitted into the hospital for cutting.  As I look back, I realize that she was going through a hard time at home because the one parent she was close with left and she was stuck the parent who ignored her for most of her life.  Now before I say something to someone, I think of their situations because everyone is different in why they act the way they do.