All the kids who met my parents were terrified of them. I never paused to think if that might have made a difference in how I was treated. Then again, I was crazy, so I probably did okay for myself. Once it became clear that my diminutive size wasn't anything I was actually consciously aware of, and that I liked to hit people for fun (I'd arrange boxing matches with any guy that would stand still long enough), physical intimidation was just never going to be much of a factor.

This is an interesting confluence of influences.

My boss is like that - she's been with the company over 20 years so she has a riDONKulous amount of vacation, and keeps saying things like "I should work 4 days a week for a while to use some vacation days up" but never does.

My friend C is off the last week of every month until the end of the year (started in August) because she's coming has so much and is coming up on use or lose. But she's a great example - last year she took a week off to go on a cruise and got so much shit for it (both open, from coworkers, and more subtle from higher ups) she was worried about taking time off ever since.

Then again, I was crazy, so I probably did okay for myself.

I'm sure that helped me, too. When your classmates are worried that you're researching how to turn them into frogs and that you just might succeed, they treat you surprisingly well.

The schools here take bullying pretty seriously. I wasn't bullied very much despite being quite nerdy and non-popular. I can only think of a couple of instances, but they were walking home from school by older kids, not by peers. Honestly, I don't know how holding down a elementary school kid in a snowbank when you're in high school makes you cool. Look at me, I can take on a 5th grader. But that was just a couple of isolated incidents.

I suspect playing some backyard football with the kids who later became jocks, breaking a jock's thumb in PE wrestling, and being able to jack the ball in PE softball helped (let me tell you, for a nerdy kid having the outfield move back when you come to the plate is a very good feeling).

High School was just nasty rumors, Middle School was my bullying time. I'll just hit the top three:

Let's see... a girl who I thought was a friend and I talked about masterbation once and she dubbed me "pruney" (for my presumably wrinkled fingers) and I spent a better part of a year being called that. That one was rough.

Then there was the Duran Duran song Girls on Film that was oh so cleverly turned into WHALES on Film by a group of boys who would serenade me in the halls.

Probably worst were those occasions when I was foolish enough to not check the lunchroom menu and wound up wearing a button-down shirt on a day when they'd serve peanuts and raisins in a dixie cup. My fairly-unique-at-that-age clevage was a popular target from every direction.

My teachers were by and large wonderful and would stop stuff when they saw it. The lunch ladies thought it was funny.

I got bullied a lot growing up, especially in second and sixth grade (after that I think kids didn't care so much--I was still socially ostracized, but the active bullying and takin my things and such wasn't as much). In high school it was big enough everyone ha their own crowd--sure, you'd be socially uncool and looked down on, but you probably had your own uncool friends, so it was only so bad.

But I think I still harbor resentment towards my parents for not fixing things when I was getting hurt an tortured as a small child (second grade was right after we moved, and when I got glasses, to boot!)

There was one teacher I remember who encouraged bullying. My 8th grade PE teacher who was a total dick. He liked to embarrass the nerdy guys in the class. The wrestling (as mentioned before) was probably the most egregious. He'd pit the least athletic against the boys actually on the wrestling team.

When your classmates are worried that you're researching how to turn them into frogs and that you just might succeed, they treat you surprisingly well.

Heh. I was either in a book, hanging out with my sister's friends, or trying to find a good excuse to hit someone. It wasn't the sort of not fitting in that was fun to persecute.

I wish I had been more tapped into the zeitgeist. It occurs to me that slapping around the most popular guy in school might have had ramifications, but I wasn't paying any attention. 15 years later, we did get a good flirt on, and I decided he was marriage-worthy material, but my mother declined to arrange the hookup. Damn. I like a man who doesn't hold me hitting him against him, considering he deserved it.

By the time I got to England, I was the chick most likely to hit people, so there was that. But we had a real weird year, with very little social pressure. Huge bunch of weirdos, one way or another.

If I was bullied, I've erased a lot of it from my memory. I know there were some incidents, especially on the bus (lord, god, the bus). Most of any sexual innuendo went right over my head because I was remarkably naive kid for a very long time, so I had no idea why guys were leering and making gestures. True utter obliviousness is very handy. I was very busty early on as well, but it was my mother's fixation on that matter that was more distressing than anything any boys did.

I still remember in elementary school being told I smelled like fried corn. I don't really know what what was supposed to mean, really, but it sounded bad at the time. I was never physically bullied that I recall, and I can't remember too many specific instances of truly being picked on, but I'm sure I was. I wouldn't be a proper nerd if I hadn't been.