I recently watched BULLY and was revisited by some of my own traumatic memories of being a victim. Growing up I always saw myself as different from the other kids- to list a few: my parents were both immigrants from Israel, my mom looked physically different because of cancer and I was the youngest girl of 2 older brothers (the oldest being 14 years older than me). I felt like a loner, looked awkward and had no one to relate to. It was my middle school years where I was bullied most and the ironic part of my story is that the kids that bullied me in middle school became my best friends in high school and college. Like most victims, I was teased mostly on the bus ride home- many times I would run off the bus crying and often found that the bus driver was my only friend. It was 9th grade when I finally grew into myself, I gained a sense of confidence and a group of great friends. I promised myself that I would never be mean to someone who was different in any sense of the word. If I were to ever see someone get bullied I would interject, I would befriend kids that were out of my social circle and would always be sensitive to others- this stayed with me my whole life and its because of my middle school years that I've become a better person. I am now 25 years old and have come a very long way since my middle school years. I can only hope that kids going through this realize that it does get better, it really does.