The Bully’s Side of The Story

I just came across a terrific blog written from the perspective of a former bully. Titled “Confessions of A Former Bully“, the author of the blog tells his story of how he was a bully in middle school and his feelings about what he did. He says in his blog:

I like to think of the middle-school version of myself as a thinking man’s bully, a sort of class clown run amok — a bored, self-loathsome individual who used his brain to inflict as much outward hurt as possible, rather than pay attention to girls and bad feelings or whatever the teacher was prattling on about.

I feel guilty about it now, but at the time it was a blast.

It all felt so natural; I have a brother close in age and, as anyone with siblings knows, one can get up to all sorts of sadistic nastiness before crossing over into the physical realm. Of course, I punched my brother all the time and he returned the favour, but I never allowed this facet of brotherly “love” to impinge on my classroom and schoolyard escapades. Well, almost.

I punched a guy once. He was the primary butt of jokes within our class and could often give as good as he got, so when he offered himself up for a free shot during a heated moment after school, I turned and swung. Not wanting to hit him in the face and do any real damage, I aimed low and planted my balled fist squarely in the centre of his chest. Directly on his sternum.

Check out his blog to read the rest of the story. It’s very powerful and very honest. I really appreciate reading about the “other side” and am very interested to hear from current and former bullies as to what they are and were thinking when they were bullying kids.

~ by aeisenbe on December 18, 2007.