There's been a fair amount of talk in the media lately about a Miami Dolphins football player who is accusing teammates of bullying him. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know the whole story, but I just have to wonder if bullying is being blown out of proportion.
I was picked on as a kid. I was awkward, insecure, and shy. Although I always tried to be nice to everyone, I just didn't have a lot of friends growing up. I worked hard in school and was smart, but I vividly remember being picked last for practically everything in school, including academic things. I don't remember much of the bullying going on outside of school. There were no prank phone calls, and since there was no social media, I didn't have to worry about Facebook or ugly emails after school or on weekends. Thank goodness for that. Kids these days don't have that escape.
Bullying is in the eye of the victim, and what one person considers bullying may not be considered by bullying by someone else. This Miami Dolphins player may feel victimized, and that's really unfortunate. Even as adults, we never seem to completely move past that junior high mentality of playing mind games and being mean to people.
What happened to me was not considered bullying, then or now. When I was young, bullies were the kids who started fights with the smaller, weaker kids or stole the class nerd's lunch money. What happened to me was explained by my parents as "People who treat you this way aren't your friends". Well, I knew that, but what I never knew was why people seemed so set on making life miserable for me.
I'm not sure the point of this blog post. I don't need apologies from the people who treated me poorly while I was growing up. At this point, they would be insincere & nothing would be accomplished by it. You can't do undo the past, but I think we can all benefit from treating others with a little more kindness and decency.
