I've mainly experienced name-calling and teasing. People would call me "fat", talk about me behind my back, and snicker as I walk by them. I'm already self-conscious as it is, so this just made things worse.

The very first time I was bullied was when I was 5 years old. I then experienced it on and off up until I reached high school, when it picked back up again.

A mean boy bullied me when I was in first grade (and I knew it wasn't like a "oh he likes you" kind of thing because he was a troubled kid that bullied others as well). Classmates teased me on and off through elementary and middle school years by snickering and saying random remarks as I walked by. In high school, people I thought were my friends bullied me and I was also bullied by a teacher/coach I thought I could trust.

I felt horrible, miserable, emotional, stupid, awful ... I felt like something was wrong with me.

Terrible. One day after school, for a good half a minute, I actually thought about how things would probably be better if I just killed myself. I don't mean to trivialize suicide by saying that I only thought about it for 30 seconds, but it scared the crap out of me when I snapped out of it and realized that I could actually feel bad enough about myself that I'd contemplate suicide at all, ever.

Once I was in high school, I told my mom that my "friends" were being mean to me, but I never told her how badly it affected me (i.e. suicide entered my mind).

I told her because I couldn't really hide it; at one point they were so mean to me that I came home crying after school. I'm glad I did end up telling her though, because in a way she helped me stay focused on what was important (i.e. my education, my family, and my real friends).

I was bullied on and off for 12 years. It got really bad the last two years of high school.

Fortunately I have not been bullied since I graduated high school. And I want to tell everyone out there who is being bullied in school that it gets better after high school. Once you're in college, or even if you decide to take a job, you have much more of a choice of who your friends are AND who you want to surround yourself with. Just keep focused on your education, your family, and the friends you have that actually love and respect you. It gets better, I'm living proof of that.