We all became kids once and one of our most memorable memories is spending our time in school. It was supposed to be fun and exciting but not all people are meant for that “peaceful” school life. Some of us were once tormented by our bullies who made school life seem unbearable.
Moving on was a bit of a challenge but what if you once encountered that “bully” of yours? Were you the one to take revenge or initiate forgiveness? These redditors had a glimpse of the past when they met their bullies. We will learn a thing or two from their experiences. Let’s check these out!
1. Transformational Grace
I own my gym and have for a few years now. I received a message one day from a familiar-looking name on the business's social media page from a woman asking to come try us out.
We set it up, she comes in for an introduction, she's a very large and out-of-shape woman at this point. After about 5 minutes of working with it, it hits me that this lady used to be about half her current size and was an absolute wench in her hay day.
I decided not to bring it up to her as she appeared to be struggling in life and came to us in a time of need and I took it, as I do with all of my clients, as a cry for help. I'm a grown man now and that seemed pretty silly and insignificant in life today.
Months later during one of the classes, I noticed her struggling hard so I went over to offer some encouragement. As I leaned down to say something to her, I noticed she was crying faintly to herself.
She looks up at me and quietly says "Sorry for how nasty I was to you years ago and thank you for doing this for me." Turns out an old mutual friend told her about my place and she recognized me as the owner and came to me on purpose.
No, it's not a story of revenge or retribution, but, she reached out to someone she was terrible to, and today, she's re-purposed and I find it quite inspiring.
Rtillaree
2. The TV Bully
Not quite the same but about 10 years ago I caught my dad screaming at the TV.
"This freaking douche got his show! He was such a piece of crap when we were kids. He would hurt you for your lunch money. Push you for no good reason. Take your toys. And based on how he acts now it does not seem like he grew up much."
He was talking about a TV personality from a famous reality show.
Cboogie
3. Humble Apologies
I was a jerk in high school, and then I went through the karma-mandated fat phase. It made a guy's day when he saw me at work. I went from pretty fine in high school, to man the harpoons. But I became a nicer person.
He came in and said, "Wow, fanciful unicorn?" And I said, "Yep, does this make it feel better?" and spread out my arms. He responded "Heck, yes! You were a wench." I said sorry, I was pretty immature, and then we talked like normal adults.
TheFancifulUnicorn
4. Tragic Turn Of A Bully’s Life
I moved to a new school in 7th grade and was doing fine, making friends, and good grades. Then somehow ran afoul of this bigger kid (he'd been held back a few times). Typical bully, pushed little kids into lockers, loved to torment girls, and ran with a pack of acolytes who adored and aped him.
In Texas at the time, if a kid didn't like you, he would call you out and challenge you to a fight after school. Well, "Zed" calls me out one day, because I was a "faggot from New York." I was clueless, moved there from NY, where people are civilized, I said, "Sure, okay."
A few days later, in front of his acolytes and a small group of my friends, he proceeded to hurt me. It was 7th grade, so the damage wasn't excessive, it was mostly to my pride. I spent the rest of middle school known as one of the guys "Zed beat the heck out of."
Fast forward about 7 years, home from college and going to the grocery store for mom. Who should I see bagging my goodies but Zed? Taking a look at him, I see a horrible scar running from the top of his head down around the back of his skull and neck and under his shirt.
His face lights up when he sees me, and he says, in slightly slurred speech, "Hey! Didn't we go to school together? We're friends from school, right?" He walks with me out to the parking lot, and as we walk I learn that he had been hit by a car in high school while biking home one day.
The accident required a half-dozen surgeries.
He put my stuff in the car, shook my hand for a good 30 seconds, and kept asking me to "come back and see me sometime!" I had hated few people in my life to that point, and no one more than him. Almost cried driving home, I felt so bad for him and disgusted with myself for my previous hatred.
asshat_backwards
5. Overdue Apology
I ran into somebody in high school that I used to pick on regularly when we were in 1st and 2nd grade.
We recognized each other and I walked up to him. We exchanged a few words since I hadn't seen him in close to 10 years and then didn't talk again. But right before we parted ways, I apologized for the way I treated him as a child.
I couldn't stress how sorry I was for being a piece of crap to him for no other reason than I felt like it. I still occasionally think about him and where he's at in life.
ChildishSamurai
6. Bully Confrontation
It was a kid named Patrick. He injured my ribs when he jumped on my chest with his knees. Another resulted in a broken eye socket after being kicked in the face by him and two of his friends. I moved in with my father and didn't see any of my old bullies again.
During high school, I took some martial arts classes. I was always a larger kid but too timid to fight back but martial arts helped me overcome that. After a year or two after high school, I go over to visit my mother. She had moved in with a crap. Then there’s Patrick.
He's now a foot shorter than me, skinny as a middle school girl, and was undoubtedly on illegal substances. We ended up talking and I told him about how I have sinus trouble because of him. He laughed.
I looked around at my younger brother and sister, and the environment they were in, and right then I made a decision. I turned to my mother, "I don't give a crap if this is the kind of people you want to be around but we are leaving.” So I piled my siblings in my car and brought them home. They shortly moved in with my father officially.
Patrick commented that I was "disrespecting him and my mother" and I told him he had no respect for himself. He went to hit me and I just stared at him. He dropped his fist quickly after I stared him down for what felt like an hour.
Grimgrefercma
7. From Victim To Victor
When I was a kid, I was fat. I used to get picked on all the time by this kid at church named Rusty. He was about five years older than me and every couple of weeks he would hurt me.
I moved away when I was about 14, and thankfully, I didn't have to deal with him anymore. When I went to college, I decided to get my act together and get healthy. To that end, I started taking mixed martial arts. I did it for about two years and lost about 40 pounds.
When I graduated, I moved back to where I was from and started looking for a new MMA gym. I went to the most reputable one, and who should be there, but Rusty? It sounds too good to be true, but I swear to God, it happened.
He hadn't changed a bit. The first thing he said to me was "Finally trying to learn to defend yourself, huh?" I had called ahead and the instructor knew my deal and had arranged for me to come watch. I left my gear in the car. At the end of class, they do free-rolling, Ju ju-jitsu sparring.
Rusty comes up to me, having no knowledge that I am the least bit experienced, and starts begging the instructor to let him spar me, so he can "show me the ropes." After all, he's been in MMA for three months now, and he never misses a UFC pay-per-view.
I went outside and changed. Long story short, we sparred, and I choked him out three times. Afterward, I signed up for classes, and he grabbed his bag, left, and never came back.
This is my favorite story out of everything that has happened in my life thus far. I'm the only person I know who got to get even with my childhood bully as an adult.
Freepwnyridez
8. The Bully Is The Boss
I needed an accountant job so I searched several websites of businesses. I came across a very worthy company so I wanted to apply. While I was filling out the form I looked around the website some more and saw the name of the head chief of the company. I was depressed for the rest of the day.
My high school bully who bullied me every single day is now the freaking head chief of his own freaking business. I'm an accountant.
It doesn't always work out.
Theinternetaddict
9. Dad’s Foreseeing Powers
This one is a classic.
This girl used to torment me all through high school and middle school. I went out of her way to tear me down. Whenever we had a class together, she would make her extreme dislike for me apparent and, of course, other kids followed.
I couldn't open my mouth without some kind of ridicule. Of course, I was miserable, and my dad would try to cheer me up, "Don't worry kiddo, one day she'll be working at a fast food restaurant and serving you fries." He referred to her as a server for years.
A couple years after graduating high school I went to a Hardee's with my dad. And there was that girl behind the counter. So I go up to place my order and before I finish she says, "You don't remember me, do you?" I answered then, "Oh, I remember you." Then it got a bit awkward, "Oh so, would you like fries with that?" I replied, "Why yes, yes I would."
Way to go, dad. Called it 9 years in advance.
ManiacalMalapert
10. A Shot To Remember
I had an evil 5th-grade teacher who made my life terrible for a year. She even instigated a "Pick on Shtoups day.” I saw her at the bar where my friend worked.
The day before this we had invented a shot that tastes like urinal cakes smell. I bought my old teacher and her friends a round from across the bar. I made eye contact and raised my shot of Wild Turkey.
They gave me a curious look but took the urinal cake shots nonetheless. My old teacher proceeded to throw up on the bar and get 86ed from one of the only bars in town. Crap you, Mrs. Freeman!
Shtoups
11. Late Bloomer’s Dilemma
My sister has since become really good friends with her childhood tormentors. The sad part, to me, is that the reason she was able to patch things up was that she was a very late bloomer and ended up the kind of popular person they wanted to be friends with. I guess she kind of sold out and became friends with them?
How on earth the topic never comes up amongst them, I do not know.
Well_uh_yeah
12. Worst Enemy To Best Man
When I was in 8th grade, a new kid moved in down the street. He was new, overweight, and a band geek so of course he was the easiest target on the bus ride home from school.
With each day, the teasing and bullying got worse and worse. I was bullied myself. Not an excuse or justification, but certainly an environmental factor to explain why I might have done what I did.
One day, about a month or two into the school year, I just realized that I was being a complete douche and decided to back off. I soon found out that he also liked playing a computer game and we soon became good friends.
Now, 14 years later, he's one of only two people I've kept in touch with from high school, and last summer, I gave the Best Man speech at his wedding.
People can change and it doesn't always take years or require people to reach a certain age.
BigDaddyDrexx
13. Contrasting Life Path
I got teased mercilessly by friends of a family member of mine who was in my grade and never stuck up for me. They were all really popular (I still don't know why, they're all still douches) but they were generally pretty smart.
I thought it was because they sucked up teachers and all played sports, but it wasn't. When we all went off to college, they went to a school close to home that almost everyone went to and I went out of state with literally no one within twenty miles of my high school.
Fast forward four years, they're all graduated and getting jobs and I got suspended as a super senior and had to wait an extra year to graduate. I just got dumped, they're all having long-term relationships and engagements, and I'm struggling to find more than a part-time job to support myself.
I see them at the bar sometimes, or just around town, and I get angry every time. I try as hard as I can and they're still better than I am. I've heard the conversations they have, and there are maybe two nice girls in their entire friend group and only one nice guy.
Ilikecheeseforreal
14. When The Underdog Became The Top Dog
My Dad was a very large man. We are talking 6'7" and 300 lbs big. He would always tell me this story to cheer me up when girls would be douches to me.
He was pretty chubby in high school so he played football and was good at it, but he just really loved playing basketball. So his freshman year he tried out for the team and didn't make it. The coach, who was a history teacher at the school, stated his weight as an issue. Fair enough, he worked hard to lose some weight over the summer.
Enter sophomore year, he ends up having the coach as his history teacher. Great, he thinks. He can be a good student and hopefully get on the team. Wrong. This adult MAN decided to call my father names related to his weight and harass him in front of the class.
Not cool but my Dad was too proud and never said anything. Ended up making varsity his sophomore year because of a coaching change. Fast forward about 5 years my Dad was working as a bouncer at a bar in a nearby town to where he went to school. It was a regular night when who walked in? The douche history teacher. Perfect. He thinks ah I'll let it go, be professional. Until he recognized my dad as "the chubby kid who was a coward.”
My dad looks at him and says, “Sir, I think you've had too much to drink, it's time for you to go home.” The coach is saying he was fine. My dad grabs him by his shirt and says, "No. It’s time for you to step outside, you have had too much to drink.”
The coach decides to swing at my dad and that's when he loses it. He states "This is for all the kids you've called fat you piece of crap" and proceeds to beat the tar out of him.
A long story I know, but my favorite by far. My dad and his old bouncer friends always tell it when they got together too. Ah, revenge.
Tloves
15. Barbed Wire Prophecy
In the 6th grade, I was friends with this kid. I remember one day telling him about an episode of Rescue 911 that I saw where a guy was driving an ATV in a field and didn't see that there was a barbed wire.
Fast forward a year, and this kid started to make mean comments about me. He would make fun of my appearance and how my family had no money in front of everyone.
I am from an immigrant family and he would always tell me to "Go back to your country." Middle school was tough on me because of kids like him, but held back from fighting him because I knew nothing good would come from it.
Fast forward to the summer after high school graduation, that kid was driving an ATV in a field, didn't see the barbed wire, and was badly injured. Weird that 7 years prior, I had described to my future tormentor exactly how he would be ended.
Pizzafriday
16. Unpredictable Turns
This is just a generic high school reunion story.
The 2-3 most athletic kids had gained weight and gotten some chick pregnant. I think one was still with the mother (who had gained even more weight) and one paid child support.
The hot girl that every guy wanted to fool around with had gotten married and had 3 kids, was still smoking hot, but had gotten SUPER religious to the point that it was creepy.
FLAG-PANTS
17. The Tale Of Undeserving Rewards
I lucked out and didn't garner any enemies while in middle school and high school mostly because I was the poor kid at a snobby private school in Nashville, Tennessee, until I moved in 9th grade and nobody would talk to me.
There was this one obnoxious boy in one of my classes in 7th grade though, who treated everyone like handmaids but the parents had money so nothing was ever really done about it. I ran across his social media page the other day, his parents just bought him his second luxury car because he wrecked the first one.
I try not to hold animosity towards anyone, but I hope somebody keys that car.
chaoscontrolled123
18. Awkward Bachelorette Selection
I was working in a video rental store in Houston, circa 1989, about two years after I graduated high school. In comes a girl who had always been awful to me from 10th grade to graduation.
She would cross a room just to say something mean, and I had no history with this girl at all. I had never actually said a word to her, all our exchanges were just her saying something mean to me. I didn't even know her last name. I must have reminded her of someone.
She comes into the store and sheepishly says that she wants 3 dirty movies. She didn’t seem to remember me. She said her best friend was getting married and she wanted some dirty movies for the bachelorette party.
The shop had a small “adult” room that you had to access by coming behind the counter, but she didn't want to go in there. She asked me to select three films. She was squirming with embarrassment as I tried to find out what she was “into” and kind of acted like I thought the films were for her and her alone. She said, “Just grab three good ones, I don’t care.”
So I selected three all lesbian adult films and she slunk out with them. I would have loved to see the look on their faces when they popped those tapes in. She returned them through the night drop so she wouldn’t have to look anyone in the eye when she brought them back.
She rented on her parent's account. I sent a notice through the mail to her parents that “Mona’s Three Way Party” had been returned damaged and they owed us 30 dollars.”
[deleted]
19. Turning The Tables
In grade 10, my locker was next to that of one of the most popular guys in school. I was not so popular. When both were at our lockers, he would regularly whisper close to my face that I was stupid and that he was going to take advantage of me.
Fast forward 4 years at a party, he shows up. Out of morbid curiosity, I speak to him. He started hitting on me, obviously not recognizing who I was.
I laughed and said loud enough for everyone around us to hear "I'm not going to get intimate with you, especially after you threatened to take advantage of me almost every day of grade 10!"
He was horrified, I smiled and walked away.
Scarlottharlott
20. Sweet Redemption
I was playing poker in Atlantic City about 7 years ago and one of the guys that bullied me, Chad, sat at my table. There's no way he recognized me. I was playing on a no-limit hold 'em table while waiting for a seat to open in a 2 way hi-lo game.
Anyway, I stayed at the NLHE table just to take his money. I played probably 95% of the pots he was in. He was pretty drunk and wasn't very good. I got close to $600 off of him in a little over an hour before he decided to quit. I have no idea what he does for a living, but I am 100% sure he is a big loser when he plays cards.
Cigareddit
21. Unforgettable “Hold Me Back” Moment
Ours was extremely smart and very athletic, he was an incredible wrestler and undefeated throughout high school.
I saw him at a party at a friend's house randomly and we caught eyes a few times eventually we just approached each other said hello, and exchanged bro hugs. Mind you, we hardly talked.
The only time we did this was when I told him to stop picking on someone and told me he would kick me instead. He was a lovely guy. Anyway, he hadn't changed one bit. He tried to pick fights with people throughout the night and kept looking at me while he was in yelling matches with people.
So, I kept getting in between him and the other person telling them both to calm down. This happened a few times until it started getting a little physical and he looked at me again.
I stood up and he tried to push the guy one more time, so I grabbed him by his shoulders and started pushing him back telling him to cool it and I thought, "What the heck am I doing? He is an angry wrestler that can take me down." Once I got him back away and told him to knock it off he just looked at me and said, "You know what I could do to that guy, but I don't want to. Please, stop me."
It was the saddest "Hold me back bro" moment I have ever been a part of. It was odd that he kept looking for me to stop his fights, but I was glad I was that guy for a bit.
[deleted]
22. Rising Above The Dullard Label
I had a teacher in Grade 12 for Modern Western History. The class was incredibly boring as a result of her teaching style and I didn't pay much attention during the year.
I was sporting a solid D in the class and the teacher would refer to me being a dullard continuously. On many occasions over the year, people would laugh at me as a result of a comment she made.
At the time I didn't think she was trying to be vindictive just trying to jeer me into doing better in the class. Nonetheless, I'm sure it did have some impact on my self-esteem.
Fast forward 8 years I am running a College Pro Painting franchise, standing in a customer's driveway getting supplies out of the back of my wicked awesome minivan. My bully teacher walks by, recognizes me, and says, "Oh I'm so glad you got a job, you know I could have told you were going to go into a manual labor trade. You were never really focused."
In as flat a tone as I could I got to tell her that not only was I running this franchise that employed 12 people that summer, but that I was doing it while still a full-time student getting my bachelor's degree. The best satisfaction I have ever had because it didn't have to be confrontational but I got to set her straight.
Fast forward another 7 years and I am running an internet advertising business. Her son applies for the job. He was underqualified but during the interview, we started talking about his mom. Turns out she is way harder on him than she ever was to me. Constantly berating him because he wasn't very studious and dropped out of university.
I gave him the job and he is now our best employee. I see my bully teacher from time to time, never speaking about how she made my life horrible during my last year of high school, but I now have the satisfaction of defying expectations of me and her son while being his biggest benefactor.
MIkeHBrown
23. Triumph Over Classroom Bullying
I had a grade 11 history teacher who picked on me, insulted me in front of the class, and gave me awful grades. He told me he would never send his children to public school with such morons.
Fast forward 5 years or so, I'm almost finished my first degree and have made all A's in university so far. The awful teacher comes into the physiotherapy clinic where I'm working.
My coworker deals with him and I tell her the story. When he came back to book his next appointment my coworker started talking about me as if she didn't know he had been my teacher. She bragged about how she loved mentoring students who were doing so well in school and how successful I had been at work so far. He never returned for his 2nd appointment.
FlipWhispers
24. A Mechanic’s Remarkable Turnaround
I go to my mechanic to change my brakes. The usual cashier offers me coffee, and I make small talk (been going there forever, and they're an honest car repair shop, believe it or not). Then I noticed the guy hunched over a car.
I call out. He turned, squinted his eyes, and then he called my name. I call him out on his behavior, and he tells me he's straightened up after mouthing off to the wrong person nearly cost him his life (he showed me a shank wound 3 cm under his heart). He's apparently happily finishing a course in auto repair and had just been hired at the garage.
He turns out to be a nice guy, having sorted out his issues. I routinely bring him donuts when I bring the car in and he gets me rebates because dude, I brought donuts.
Hyugafan
25. Justice Finally Served
There was a freakishly large guy who walked the same way home as me in high school and used to mercilessly push me, and say degrading things. My older brother was a monster and would stop him if he was ever there, but that rarely happened.
Fast forward 4 years after graduation. I am a successful casino supervisor and he is working at a store in the sporting goods department. I, of course, held no hard feelings, understanding he had a horrible life and he was just acting out bad stuff and feelings that he had from growing up.
He did not feel the same way and advised a man as he handed him a rifle it was not okay to point it at anybody in the store, except for me. He doubled down and told him the rifle was 10% off if the rifle was pointed at me. I looked at him and asked him if he understood what he was doing, he just smiled threateningly at me.
At this point, I was beside myself and couldn't believe he would make such a massive and illegal mistake. I went to the front and called the manager. I explained the situation and told him that I was calling the police immediately and contacting a lawyer unless the said employee was fired on the spot and escorted from the store.
When the manager looked into it, the guy wasn't even smart enough to lie, he just said it had been a joke and I was "being a wench.” The customer backed me up too. I told him we could avoid lawsuits and cops, just fire him and I would drop it.
I got to watch with immense satisfaction as they escorted him from the premises about 20 minutes after the manager agreed and the look of glee on my face just pushed his anger further. I had been willing to drop it, but that win was one of the best feelings of my whole life.
thinkforyourself80
26. High School Foes To High School Bros
I ran into a high school classmate a while back. A guy in high school just didn't like me and I liked him. We got into a big fight. He injured my nose and I knocked a couple of his teeth out. This happened off-campus.
No police were involved but about 10 years later I saw him sleeping on the street near where I worked. I woke him up and asked him what was going on. He told me about his life after high school. He knocked up his girlfriend, and her parents made them get married, and divorce a year later.
He got into illegal substances and ended up alienating everyone. I asked him if he was still using and he said no, he couldn't buy a dose anyway. I felt bad for him so I asked if he'd like to stay in my guesthouse (a one-room cottage, set up like an efficiency apartment) for a while.
He took me up on it and got a night's sleep in an actual bed for the first time in years (his words). I bought him some clothes and fed him for about a month until I found him a job with a contractor I was doing some work for.
Long story short, it's been 6 years, he now owns a contracting business, has a wife and a new baby boy, and just bought the house down the street from me.
[deleted]
27. Apology And Aftermath
I had an experience with an old grade school bully that made me very happy.
I was sitting at my house playing video games one day, about a year out of high school when I heard a knock at my front door. I open it to see (I'll call him Jim) standing on my front porch.
He said hello and then immediately just launched into a lengthy apology. He felt horrible for mistreating me and many other “nerdy” kids back in school. We were in classes together from about 3rd grade through junior year. I was one of the people he had decided to personally track down and speak with.
Turns out, he had made some bad mistakes after graduating and spent about 9 months in prison. It was a wake-up call for him. He was sober and trying to get his life in order. He gave me his phone number and said that if I ever felt like getting together, I should give him a call.
I called him later that week on a whim and we ended up becoming good friends for the next three years. Unfortunately, he began to slip. I walked into his house as he was doing illegal substances in the living room.
I hung out with him a handful of times after that but saw him doing worse and worse. The illegal substance was one of the triggers for the violent behavior that got Jim into prison initially. I did not want to see a repeat. So, I quietly took my leave. I haven't spoken with him since.
I hope he's doing well. Good guy, at heart.
EightySixTheLame
28. Rising Above Adult Bullying
I was bullied a lot in middle school and ended up going to a different high school from most of my classmates, and didn't keep in touch.
I was back home from college for Christmas a year or two ago and was at the mall with my little sister and my fiance. I recognized a girl from my middle school across the food court, but we had never been friends, so I simply made a mental note that she was there and went back to eating.
A few moments later my fiance and sister both got up to use the restroom and I was by myself. The girl gets up, comes over, makes nice for half a second, and then immediately transitions into how I look pathetic and desperate sitting by myself, and how it's no wonder the people I was with left.
I am completely taken aback and it takes me a moment to form words. I hadn't seen this girl in 6 or 7 years and hadn't said more than 5 words to her.
I picked up my purse, stood up from my table, and said "We're grown-ups now," in the most condescending tone I could manage through my surprise. I wanted to say something about how she needed to stop acting like a child, or how there were no teachers around to stop me from leaving, but at that moment I had too many thoughts and couldn't express them all at once eloquently, so I just left.
I think, or at least hope, she got the message.
Boatkicker
29. Shocking Closure
I got injured after school for a while when I was about 14. The girl who started it and got other people to join in had known me my whole life and had heard a rumor or just decided she didn’t like my face or something.
She’d yell different things so I don’t know or understand why she did it. Five or six years later, I’m on the phone with my dad and he says “Do you remember that girl you went to school with, Julie Lastname?”
I never told my parents she used to hurt me so I was a little confused why he’d bring her up “She pulled out in front of a semi-truck and passed away, just thought you’d want to know.”
Weirdest feeling! I don’t feel like a huge sense of justice has been served or anything, but I guess I’m just really relieved that there’s no chance she’ll come flying out of nowhere and start a fight.
Foshohammer
30. The Successful Misunderstood Student
Not really a bully, so much as a high school professor. High school was a tough time for me. I was smart but immature and distracted by life. Then to top it off, my parents split my sophomore year. I didn't drink or do any illegal substances, but I was certainly self-destructive.
I suffered through my classwork all four years of high school and was generally looked down upon by classmates and professors when it came to my work. One professor particularly liked to give me a hard time and made me feel as though high school was it for me, that I would succumb to nothingness. I had other plans.
After high school, I moved to a large metropolitan area and worked for two years in Americorps. I grew up. I read constantly and took it upon myself to learn to learn. I then took classes at a local community college to demonstrate that my grades in high school were a reflection of those times for me and not the student I had the potential to be.
I then crushed my SATs. I went to a great undergraduate institution. I was recruited to work at a prestigious consulting firm. Then applied to law school. Got in. Crushed that too and now I work at a national law firm where I am sincerely happy.
About two months ago I received a friend request from my old professor. Bygones are bygones so I accepted. About a week later he wrote me an incredible letter saying he always saw potential in me. My disruptive behavior in high school was more focused and intelligent than the proper behavior of my peers.
He said I had a knack for questioning authority and that it was no surprise I had achieved success in many ways my peers only dreamed of. I'm a 32-year-old man, I wept. His message to me confirmed that I wasn't a failure all those years back as so many had told me.
[deleted]
Pexels, Emily Ranquist
31. Once A High School Monster
There was this girl who used to be a huge wench to me in middle school. Always used to physically push me into the walls in the hallways, call me ugly, and make fun of me for not having any friends.
It was extra obnoxious because I'm a guy, so this then led to being made fun of by the guys, which in turn spurred her on. I couldn't hit her back or anything because that would turn public opinion against me.
Anyway, we went to the same high school, and things sort of wound down. She tried to carry on for a bit, but no one else found it funny, so she decided to stick to whispering “ugly” and “loner” when we passed each other in the hallways. It was only when other people were around though.
Turns out we lived quite close to each other, and the couple times we walked past each other in the street she looked terrified, which I remember making my day each time.
Fast forward nearly a decade, and I'm now 24. A few months ago I was buying some food, and she was on the registers. She looked pretty worn down, recognized me, smiled, and asked how things had been like we're old friends.
I was nice to her, and we had a chat, then as I was leaving I stopped, turned back, and said "It's weird when you're a kid everything's so black and white, people who were douches to you got built up in your mind until they're these monsters who want nothing but to ruin your life. Then when you grow up you realize they're just humans like you, and it kind of makes everything that happened feel so hollow because to not forgive the past makes you a guy who holds grudges against children."
She just smiled at me weakly with sad eyes, and I went home and cried like a baby.
kingofvodka
32. Turnabout’s Fair Play
I dealt with a douche in high school. A smaller guy, who made up for it by being aggressive. I was kind of small, too, so he could push me around. Not a lot of constant bullying, just random acts of being a jerk.
Fast forward a few years. I'm much bigger. I'm tall, I'm no longer rail-thin, I've lost my glasses because of Lasik, and I'm happy. I've almost entirely forgotten about this guy until I see him across the dining room at a restaurant.
His appetizers have just arrived, and my bill has just arrived. I pay up, leave a generous tip, and wander over to this guy. Stopping next to him at his table, I say "Hi." He looks at me, and I can see recognition flash across his eyes. He's eating wings. I reach down, take one, and calmly eat it. I toss the bone back onto his plate. "Nice seeing you again." Then I leave.
The look on his face at my random act of being a jerk was pretty amazing.
thegleaker
33. A Humble Gesture Of Apology
I was never really picked on in high school, besides the fact that I was years behind everyone in growth (late bloomer), I guess you could say I was part of the cool-people click. Although I was generally nice to everyone I did let my "popularity" go to my head a few times and would treat a few guys in some of my classes like they were my minions or servants.
As I grew up as a person, I realized how much of a freaking tool I was and felt terrible about it for years. It just so happens that two of the main guys I picked on were gay and are now life partners with each other. I instantly recognized them come in at an expensive place I was taking my girlfriend out to eat for our anniversary.
They didn't make reservations, and there was at least an hour's wait. We had just been seated, but I instantly knew this was my time to say I was sorry. So after a few minutes of explaining to my girlfriend why I needed to do this, I called them over and told them to take our seats, and how sorry I was for being a douche to them in high school. Wished them luck and paid for their dinner and dessert. Me and my girlfriend decided to get some fast food and go for a picnic.
Two weeks later I got a message from both of them saying that that was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for them and they forgive me for all the times I treated them horribly. I live in the Deep South where being gay is heavily unaccepted. Two months after that I got a wedding invite. One of the coolest weddings I have ever been to and so glad that's how it all played out.
Karmalied
34. Generous Tip And A Life Tip
My then-fiancé took me out to dinner in my hometown where we had our first date to celebrate my new promotion. I recognized our waitress right away as the girl who had been mean to me in 6th and 7th grade, the only years we had classes together. She didn't seem to recognize me. I had gained a lot of weight and the restaurant was dark. So I let it go and treated her like any other waitress.
When the bill came I asked my now-husband how we should tip. She was a great waitress and deserved a generous tip like we usually do but the urge to stiff her was there as payback. I decided to tip her generously and let the past go. But I did leave a note next to the tip, "Here's to believing that people do grow up after high school." And I signed it.
The next day I got on my social media account and she sent me a message. She said she had recognized me but I looked happy so she said nothing and she treated me like any other customer. Then she apologized for anything she might have done to me in school. It was a hard time for her and she didn't like to think about who she was then.
Some bullies do grow up and I'm glad we both did the right thing.
ShortGirl643
35. Confronting The Past
Growing up, my wife had a cat that would go everywhere with her. It would ride on the handlebars of her bike and in her backpack. The two were inseparable.
Then one day the cat disappeared. A couple of days later in school, a kid came up to her and told my wife he'd shot the cat with his bow. The cat screamed and screamed, he said. And he laughed. It broke my wife's heart. She still doesn't know if the cat is buried.
Fast forward a couple of years later, the bully has "found God" and is a preacher. My wife shows up to one of his services, stands up in the middle of his sermon, and asks if he remembers how he tortured her cat when she was a little girl. Everyone is speechless.
The bully stammers. My wife tells everyone that the man standing before them, preaching about love and kindness, ended her favorite pet and made her childhood a living hell.
GhostOfSaltySeaman
36. Karma’s Payback
In high school, a group of girls were constantly mean to me for absolutely no reason. They just decided they didn't like me. They would call me a black-eyed pea because they hated that band.
Anyway, 10 years later the ring leader of the group friend sent a friend request to me on social media. I declined it of course. I did take a glance at her page though and was glad to see that she is a "recovering" illegal substance user and looks like crap.
I also heard that she spent some time in jail for leaving a friend to pass away that had overdosed on an illegal substance.
hollylynn
37. Schoolyard Humiliation To Unlikely Connection
I was embarrassed by an older boy when I was in seventh grade. He thought I had been throwing sunflower seeds at him at lunch. He calmly got up with his tray of pizza and french fries with ketchup and threw it in my face.
I ran to the bathroom as two hundred kids laughed at me. Later, when we were both sat down in the principal's office, I broke down and cried when asked to explain what had happened.
The kid laughed and later told his friends. It took a good couple of years before people stopped picking on me about this. It was the worst moment of my entire school career.
Flash forward a decade, I'm at an outdoor concert in a park. I see that douche kid again, only now, we're both grown up. He's not so big anymore. I felt a drunken rage rise in me.
I walked over to him. I planned to sucker-punch him in the side of the head and walk away. But, then, I caught sight of his sister. She recognized me and said "Hey!" We all ended up talking and catching up.
I got the dude to work with my brother. I guess he was kind of broke. His sister thought that was kind of cool of me. We ended up dating for about six months. I'd like to say I felt immense satisfaction every time I fool around with her, not only because I was getting laid, but because it was my school bully's sister. I didn't, though. I knew we had changed and I realized that I just wasn't angry anymore.
_vargas_
38. Karma’s Check-out
I was working as a medical technologist. I saw my bully from 8th grade on the schedule. Looked at his chart and saw the history of illegal substance use, hepatitis, and seizure disorder, and that his grandparents were paying.
I didn't have to say a word to him about the bullying or seek out my revenge. I was polite to him, though I never confirmed I had known him before that, but we both knew exactly who the other one was. Karma took care of him.
Kalkaline
39. Once A Loser, Now A Winner
I was 14, and standing a bit over 5 feet tall I was sent to boarding school. I had braces, a "body-perm,” and weighed not more than 70 lbs.
I kept my head low and tried to stay "under the radar. These older girls somehow noticed me anyhow and began harassing me. At first in small ways such as making snide remarks, but quickly escalated to physical abuse.
Walking back to the girls' dorm, my heart rate increased. Much of the time, I'd get intercepted and if nobody else was around, pinned to the ground and given sailor taps while being laughed at.
One of the girls seemed to enjoy it, while the others lost interest, she'd still openly make fun of me and corner me at every opportunity for a bit of physical abuse.
I'd lie in my bed at night conjuring all sorts of scenarios in which I could humiliate her. As morning would come, I'd still be the nerdy little kid who'd be wise not to try anything. She'd still be the big-bosom popular girl who walked around pulling a wake of disciples in her path.
Many years later, now six feet tall and known as an attractive woman who was not to be messed with, I scheduled a lunch meeting with a few possible vendors to be located at the shopping mall I was helping develop.
Seated with representatives from other stores, our waitress approached the table. She was a wreck of a woman, with crispy-fried bleached-blond hair, pock-marked complexion, and cheap clothing.
As she fumbled around for a pen in her apron, our eyes met and it would be difficult to describe what was exchanged wordlessly as we recognized each other. The tables had turned dramatically. Vengeance was mine.
I said it was nice to see her after all these years, and that I couldn't think of anyone I'd be happier to have as my server. The meeting went well, table service was impeccable, and I left a tip equal to our tab for the meal. Haven't seen her since, but now when I think of her I get all warm and tingly with the deliciousness of winning.
[deleted]
40. Bully’s Ambition Turn To Ashes
There was a douche way back in school. He tormented me so much by stealing my prize possession. This collectible card was so hard to get but he stole my rare collectible game card.
I just found out years later that he went to the same art school as me for a bit. I discovered that he was not even good at drawing! He sucked so hard! He flunked out after a month or two. I hope my Charzard warms your cold house of failure, jerk!
[deleted]
41. Boy Magnet No More
I went to boarding prep school and there was this one girl, we'll call her D, who was always rude. My first interaction with her was finding her ranting about my clothes with my roommate. I overheard them before I walked in to find her cutting up a sweater of mine. She said she was doing my roommate a favor so she wouldn't have to look at that sweater again. I was shocked and confused and didn't say anything.
Throughout high school, I had a lot of awful interactions with D. She would always have something mean to say whenever we passed each other in the hallway. She was very proud of her Italian heritage and screamed at me in front of a group of 10 or so people because I dared to say that I was half Italian (more than her).
The list of stupid crap goes on and on. I was pretty shy at this time and already had fairly low self-esteem, so her attempts to make me feel like crap worked.
Fast forward 5 years and I'm gearing up for our big reunion. I remembered what my mom had told me, so when D came up to say hi, I was pleasantly surprised and optimistic about where the conversation would go. She started nice enough but then said, "I heard you live with X, but I know that can't be true because you are not cool enough."
When the reunion came around, I warned my boyfriend to stay away from D. After a few minutes, he said excuse me and introduced himself. She looked disgusted "You’re her boyfriend, right?" and he said yes. She turns her back to him. He comes back laughing.
The reunion was fun despite her presence. I managed to avoid her. Even though I had a boyfriend, they were all much more interested in talking to me than her. At one point I saw her crying, drunk in a corner by herself.
On the final day of the reunion, D was looking worse for wear. We ignored her and he had the whole table laughing. I looked up to see that she was the only one not laughing.
Felt good to see her so miserable how the guys would have rather hung out with me than her.
JessMess86
42. The Left Behind Bully
I remember vividly this one girl who used to bully me in high school. Every day, she would find a way to torment me. The worst thing she did was that she even made me cry on prom night. My high school became a living hell all because of her.
4 years later, she works at a gas station and I'm about to graduate with an engineering degree. She hasn't done much concerning her education.
[deleted]
43. Karma’s Sweet Twist
I was minding my business in school but this one girl decided to be cruel to me the whole time I was in school. I don’t know how she even had that idea in her head but she decided to call me gay.
She even got all of the kids in the whole middle school through junior high school to call me gay. There was no way I was gay, I am 100% straight.
But the plot twist is she is the one who is gay. She came out of the closet right after high school.
Lovelesschristine
44. Life Beyond Grades
Everyone who picked on me from grade school to high school seems to be doing better than me. I was an Eagle Scout, did decently in college, but graduated right at the beginning of the downturn.
I'm in the same job I was in when I graduated college making less than 30k a year in California. The one thing I always tell everyone who is in college is this, “Grades almost mean nothing, just pass.”
Go to all the parties you can, those douched who are drunk all the time will have the connections and you won't because you were studying all the time. You need to know people more than you need to know how to do things well.
thatguy837
45. Life’s Sweetest Twist
I have been feeling awful for years because it seemed like nothing was going on with my life.
Fast forward to my thirties, the "popular" girl is now a full-grade bogan (like the trailer trash Australian equivalent) with the three kids and will never leave our awful hometown and really do anything with her life.
I grin every time I see her updating on her social media account.
tmofee