When I was 7 yrs.  old we moved from a small community to the city. I had loved going to school and was so excited for my first day and wanted to make tons of friends like I had at my last school. Little did I know, I was not easily accepted into my new school because I was overweight. My first moments in class ,my classmates were giggling behind my back, then at lunch several little boys thought it was funny oinking and mooing at me, then one little girl ran up and screamed in my face , when the teacher asked her why she exclaimed loudly "I thought she was going to eat me". After that day I never wanted to leave my house again. I cried on the bus all the way home. My mom told me to tell them "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" and I told her I would try to ignore them. While I tried my best to avoid the kids who gave me the most trouble and I tried to ignore the comments but that just made things worst. The bullying went from name calling and loneliness to being harassed and physically abused. For years I had pleaded with counselors and principals for help and they ignored me and one even said maybe I should just lose the weight. I was pushed, beaten up constantly, I had to check my seat daily for thumbtacks and at 11 years old I wanted to just end it all. I felt unwanted, lonely, depressed, and angry, and cried myself to sleep every night. The only thing that gave me any hope was my aunt who had been bullied as a child gave me the confidence and the will to push through school. I graduated, made lots of friends out of school, got married, had kids. Now as an adult I still feel the cruel malicious remnants of the effects from being bullied and I know that bullying and name calling can hurt more than sticks and stones. My daughter now is being bullied at school and I am committed to trying to prevent anyone from the torture I had endured growing up. I teach my kids that everyone is different and beautiful and that no one deserves to be bullied.