Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ok - I suppose I should go first, its my little experiment after all.
In primary school (in New Zealand) there were three kids who picked on me from the first day. I don't really know why, perhaps because I had longish (wouldn't be considered long these days) hair, or an american accent, or all of these made me different. I was also skinny - still am, heh.
So one of them would hold me and the other would beat on me, or steal my bag, or scribble in my books etc. One day on a school trip, one of them (Shane...) pulled my bag out from my seat on the bus and threw it down the isle. Whilst I was retreiving it he took my seat. Having been pushed to the edge, I proceeded to strangle him, heh. I got in trouble for it too, as I left finger marks on his neck before being pulled off him by a teacher.
I was moved to a different class after that..
Maybe one or two years later was the next big thing - I was always ragged on about my accent and about how weird I was, even by the ******** teachers - There was a new kid in school, Craig, and he was little - I mean he was *tiny* for his age. One of the older kids, Luke, (Ok this if frickin weird - I'm terrible with names!) Decided to take exception to the new kid, and stole his lunch. I didn't like this, cause I knew how Craig felt, so I pushed Luke, or threw something at him, don't remember really. The next day, Luke and 10-15 of his friends all cornered me and beat the s**t outta me. Its something that disturbs me to this day - there's nothing quite like the feeling of 5 pairs of shoes stomping and kicking you, even though they were little kids, I was little too (about 8 or 9), and it still hurt..
Anyway - thats my little trauma that hardly anyone knows about. But since I've gotten older I've always tried to look out for the little Craigs and Miles' out there.. Generally by giving the bully back what they dish out.

I don't think I've ever really been bullied. I've never been "cool" but no one's ever picked on me either. Unless you count all those freshman jokes you get when you first enter high school, but I doubt those actually count. I basically just joined the martial arts because I thought it looked cool and it'd be great to know if some a*****e tried to mug me someday. But then again, my school is pretty non-violent. You don't get picked on unless you make yourself a target...most of the time.

I've never been bullied, that I can remember. My school is small, and by small I mean, less than 250 students. I'm past the point where I would be bullied now though, since I'm in grade 12 and everyone in my grade are all too good of friends with each other for there to be any bullying. And obviously no one younger than me is going to be a problem. Maybe at university,(which I just got accepted to!) someone might try, but they wouldn't get too far with it. I hate bullies. There are few things that irk me more than someone taking advantage of someone else.

Thanks for your contributions guys, and its an interesting responce so far.
From what I can tell, there are two ways in which people tend to deal with situations where they have been made helpless and have suffered for it. They either A- Freeze up and allow their agressor to control the situation, and continue to be a victim for the rest of their lives. B- Choose to never let the situation get out of their hands, by either finishing the fight before it starts (Pre-emptive agression) or disolving it and laughing it off.
I try to be the person who keeps in control of the situation and talks everyone into a better mood. But if it comes to it I will let the red veil come down.

Yes I was bullied at school.
Primary school age 4- 10 was fine
but then from the age of 11 too 15!! I was bullied and they shattered my self confidence/esteem...tkd helped/is helping mer build it back up
its odd my parents always used to say it was because they fancied me...but that doesnt fit for the girls...they just thought they where it...because they where all at primary school together if one person bullied me they would all follow...tho in the last year ive been asked out by a few of them...i told them where to go..

Not really...it would have been a suicide mission for the other kids tio be honest, had my fair share of fights though.

EDIT: where about in NZ are you/were you?

I like u. U speak sense 3nodding Ye and what u say makes sense
I like the quote "What goes around comes around*
I dont mean this as in Im going to go wild and get revenge on them all. But im sure at some point in their lives, they will have a time where someone/something makes them feel low. and lack confidence, and they may experience the feelings I got, then hopefully learn from it.