As long as people hate you for being different, it doesn't get better.

I'll warn you now that this post won't be happy, and it and probably won't leave you with warm, fuzzy feelings. But it will be honest. (Also, my standard rules about ignoring grammar corrections apply.)

October is Anti-Bully Month, so everyone is getting on the "stop bullying" bandwagon. But let's be honest; it's not going to work. People are going to continue to be mean to, and abuse, and hate each other until they end each other. But the effort makes for some pretty cute t-shirts and all.

Stop Bullying Now: Don't be a Bully! by inspiredbygenius

Although you probably couldn't tell to look at me, I've been bullied most of my life. In school from fifth to twelfth grade. As a teen at summer camp, And as an adult at my first job. And actually there is a person at my current job who is trying to do it as well. But we ignore her. (And feel sorry for her that her life is so sad.)

Now have I ever hurt anyone? I can pretty much guarantee that the answer is yes because I am a flawed human being who makes mistakes. (And I do feel bad about it. Kinda...) But I'd like to think that I never did it maliciously as part of a campaign to hurt someone else to make myself feel just a little bit better about my own problems.

Most people have a need to fit in. And they do this by finding a group and making themselves seem more like others in the group while making those outside the group seem more different. And the more violently someone outside the group refuses to conform, the more violently they are hated for it. But who the bullies really hate is themselves for not being able to break out of the mold they are being forced into. (But that's not really the point of this.)

So at the end of the day, I have to say that "IT" never really got better. But I did. I got better at not letting what other people thought and said and spread about me stop me from enjoying life. I got better at ignoring the people who wished they could achieve even a tenth of what I have. And I got better at accepting bullies for the small-minded people they are. It's not like I can change them. After all, haterz gonna hate.