This is a very unpopular opinion, but I share it with you. Bullying is often bad, but sometimes it can be a good thing. I know because I went to secondary school, and almost everyone there was bullied by or had bullied another student. I was bullied because I was socially awkward, arrogant, snarky and also because the other students figured out I was gay, even before I realised I was gay myself. And I have bullied other students, because some of them were also socially awkward, or because they were stupid, or because they were creepy, or simply because one of my classmates did something he was ashamed of and the other lads were making fun of him for it too, but I went a step further. That particular classmate came up behind me in the locker area, put his hands over my eyes and pulled me down onto the ground. It caught me off guard, so I freaked out. When I realised it was him, I stopped making fun of him and since then we would say hello whenever we crossed paths in the corridors. We were done with it. And let’s be honest, I deserved what was done to me.

As for me being bullied, it just stopped happening to me. I learned how to socialise with other people, I learned that I was not as great as I though I was so I became more humble, I learned how to take to joke, I became nicer to other students and I stopped caring if the other boys called me gay. As a result, the bullying stopped and I made new friends and acquaintances. You could say that the bullying helped me, because I am a lot better at socialising now than I was when I was in primary school.

But I will say this: when I was bullied, I was only ever called names, excluded from social groups or the subject of minor pranks. I was never assaulted, I was never robbed, I was never shoved in a locker nor was I ever accused of being a criminal. And when I was the bully, I only ever called people names or pushed their buttons to get a reaction out of them. If a student committed assault or theft against another student, then obviously the school and the parents should get involved. And if harmful rumours were spread about another student, then that will have to be dealt with.

And in the case of boys, setting up a boxing or wrestling match between them in a controlled environment usually ends the bullying, because fights do help boys to blow off some steam. And sometimes, these two boys who used to bully each other end up becoming close friends. I took up karate in college, but I wish I took up a martial art when I was in primary school, because then I would have been respected by my peers a lot earlier and I would have been nicer to my peers a lot earlier as well.