The “I was bullied” part of my story…

I was bullied and excluded in elementary school. All because I was fat. The playground was the worst. “You’re not good at playing 4-Squares because you’re fat… You can’t play with us… You’re not good enough to play.”

It made me feel so bad about myself.

I dreaded hearing that we could pick our own partners. No one would want to be my partner. I ended up being the person the teacher would take by the hand and awkwardly say, “Okay, Emily Anne’s going to join your group.” The people I was being forced to join wouldn’t like it.

It made me feel so un-included.

The people in my class thought that Britney Spears was so lame. I wanted to say, “No, I like Britney Spears,” but liking what I genuinely liked made me “uncool.”

It made me feel so unacceptable.

I didn’t tell my parents because I was embarrassed that I was being bullied and picked on for being fat. I didn’t want them to know that I was flawed and felt terrible about myself. So I isolated myself. I didn’t talk about it until after it all ended.

It ended because I switched schools. That’s how bad it got. In the new school I was able to make friends. Things were a lot better. I was no longer labeled “uncool.”

But then…