Note: There is language that is excluded in the transcript but not excluded in the audio.
So I was actually always really good at standing up to bullies, which is probably why I didn’t get bullied very much. Um, and like I was a fat kid, so I was definitely in danger of being bullied. But it rarely happened, and I think that was because I shut it down so fast whenever it did happen. Because the key to shutting down a bully is making them feel stupid. Which, I don’t love — like, I don’t want to go through life making people feel stupid, but if they’re going to be cruel enough to try and bully someone, then, yeah, I’m gonna be there for that. Um, because they do it to feel empowered, right? So when you make them feel stupid, that’s the exact opposite of what they want. And interesting thing is, the only example I can really remember wasn’t really making them feel stupid, but I think just calling them out.
It was in 8th grade. My best friend, uh, we had math class together. And she had told me that in a — in science class — I don’t know if — I guess it was earlier that day. The chair she was sitting in had broken. And, you know, she fell on the ground and everything, and I mean like, I think we can all agree that in 8th grade that would be humiliating, right? And people laughed and, you know. And so this girl who was, like, a popular girl just could not get over it and was like, bringing it up and bringing it up and I — see, I don’t know if it was the same day or not, because I know she had brought it up a lot and she just kept laughing about it. And it wasn’t even like she was trying to be super cruel about it. She just thought it was so funny but, like, there’s just no sense of like, thinking of how that might impact somebody, which is probably a problem popular people have. Not that I would know.
But anyway, so we were in math class, and my friend sat behind me and then [name] sat behind her. And [name] was telling someone about the incident and laughing and I knew [friend’s name] was feeling s***** about it because she had told me so. And uh — so like, I turned around really fast — like whipped around, you know, and was like, “Hey!” And, just — I was also like a pretty quiet person, so whenever I did get, um, aggressive, it was shocking to people. And I just really, like, laid into her, like, “How would you feel if something like that happened to you and then no one would let it go?” You know, like, blah blah blah blah. And I mean, she shut it down.