Huckleberries Online

CindyH: Liz Admits She Was ‘Unique’

Posted by DFO

May 7, 2009 1 p.m. • 17 comments

And one reader was brave enough to share the other side of the story. Liz from Coeur d’Alene said she was a Ruthie. “I probably didn’t look that odd but I was, shall we say, ‘unique.’ ” A difficult family situation contributed to her struggles, and Liz didn’t handle being picked on very well. “Whatever I did egged them on,” she said. Even her father’s fatal illness prompted cruelty. “One kid actually asked me if I was so weird because my father was in the hospital dying of cancer. Which was especially unpleasant as no one felt it would be appropriate to inform me of this piece of information. I went home and pried it out of my very reluctant mother after this incident”/Cindy Hval, SR Voices. More here.

Question: Were you ever picked on by school mates as a child? What was that experience like?

17 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

toadman on May 07 at 1:23 p.m.
“Were you ever picked on by school mates as a child?”

Good grief, who wasn’t?

Yes, I was the butt of many jokes, made fun of, mocked, and I generally never fought back. What was that like? It was hell. Pure hell. Turned me into a depressive loaner. I’m often surprised that I never pulled a Columbine on my own High School (I had a list). Over the years it’s been difficult to NOT have a general disdain and hatred for people in general because of it…I only started overcoming that feeling about ten years ago…it’s still a struggle. I often slip into the “people suck” mentality even today.

I’d never want to repeat Elementary/Junior High/High School… ever. Worst years of my life.
Escapee on May 07 at 2:11 p.m.
Toadman, I agree with you 100%. I went to Borah School in CDA and was picked on during 5th and 6th grade, as well as 7th and 8th grade in Junior High School (in the old school buildings on 7th street, which are long gone. I’m a loner, too. And, I couldn’t get any sympathy at home; my folks were constantly telling me to Fight Them All and Not Be A Coward. I’m sure I had a couple of mental breakdowns during my childhood. It was an awful, awful time.
ThomasPaine on May 07 at 3:25 p.m.
I too was the subject of much mockery and ridicule. Jr. High and High School were the worst, but grade school sucked too. Worst time of my life. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Like Toadman I kept my own list, although only in my head. Fortunately I was too much the coward to do anything about it. Today I have great sympathy for anyone who is different or “unique”.
Liz on May 07 at 5:09 p.m.
yeah…guess I was brave enough to admit this publicly!!!
Good article Cindy!!

Yes, I have often said its a good thing I grew up in the seventies or Columbine would have happened in Missouri. I definitely had fantasies about it. But that’s where they stayed was fantasies.
The worst I did was run my horse across the football field in the dark, the night before a big game. Oops.
Cindy_H on May 07 at 6:10 p.m.
Liz, I so appreciate your courage in offering the “other” side of the story.
This column really touched a chord, and I thank you for sharing your story. Not many teens read the Front Porch column, but I sure hope some parents out there make them read this one :-)
Stickman on May 07 at 8:14 p.m.
As Toad said, who wasn’t. We all went through our youth being picked on by someone. As we get older, what would you do now to those that picked on you then.
hmoffsuite on May 07 at 8:23 p.m.
Stickman >>>>” As we get older, what would you do now to those that picked on you then.”

Shake their hand. :~)
Liz on May 08 at 1:00 a.m.
Um, well, I know what Jesus would have to say about this one.
Pray for those who have wronged you.

And dismiss fantasies from your head about constructing little voo doo dolls….
marmitetoasty on May 08 at 4:34 a.m.
I was picked on for a short while when I was 13 and moved from Oak Park Secondary school which was a HUGE school in the middle of one of the roughest council estates in the south of england……. my Parents moved towns and I had to move schools…. so I to finish me last 2 years at a new school….

I was picked on by the new school bullies purely cos I had come was a school with a very hard tough reputation…. I was corned in the school gym and beaten up, purely for those reasons…. I did spend 4 days in hospital, and my parents didnt even to up the school lol……

A week after I came out and returned to the new school…. I swore that was the last time….. when the bully (who funny enough in adult life became a friend).. started on me with her little gang (these girls were also 2 years older then me)… I asked her nicely just the once NOT to push……. just the once…… she laffed at me and shoved me against the wall with her maties laffing………

I took her down with one left hook that not only broke her jaw but spread her nose all over her face……. it is NOT what I wanted to do……. but sometimes in certain situations one has no other way to go…..

Those girls never touched me again, nore did anyone else LOL

x

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.