June 9, 2009
Certain people take delight in making fun of other people. These people, classified as “bullies”, are nothing but small people in big people shoes. A bully has an arsenal of insults, jibes, and most of all, fear.
A way to deal with a bully is fairly simple. However it requires a certain strong mindset.
Bullies try to get a rise out of you. Such an instance happened to me halfway through 6th grade …
I was enjoying myself playing handball. The gentle smack of the rubber ball against the hard wood wall was a very satisfying sound. [It’s a popular game, handball. Kids line up to play it.] If you get out, you go to the end of the line. But I got out Bobby. Bobby was a textbook bully. He was thick set, wide, tall, and muscular, and wore clothes that said, (in a Danny Davito Mafia Voice)“stay out of my way or I will mess you up so bad your mamma won’t recognize you”.
It was a commonly known fact that Bobby loved to play handball. So he didn’t seem very happy about it when I got him out. After that match I got out. Not wishing to let him intimidate me, I got back in line. The minute I got back into line, he started insulting me and doing anything he could to get a rise out of me.
From there two possibilities occurred to me. I could either rise to his insults, effectively making me worse than him, or I could BE THE BETTER PERSON and walk away. Being the perfect angel I was **snort** I chose the latter of these options. But it was the best situation that I could think of under the circumstances. After I chose that coarse of action that I deemed the best, I walked away from the handball court leaving a very confused and equally angry Bobby wondering what had happened. In the long run, I feel that I did the right decision.