For Those Who Don't Feel 'Counter-Bullying' is "Appropriate";

[Buns_of_Fire]

68. Sometimes your inner berserker is your best friend...

...sometimes, your only friend at the time. Surrounding yourself with bigger, stronger friends works to a point, but they're not going to be around you 24/7. Being a skinny, nerdy, four-eyed, pimply shrimp usually put me in the crosshairs of the bullies.

The taunts and insults, I could deal with. I was always taught that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." I didn't like it, but getting the crap beat out of me wasn't on my agenda.

But twice, both times in junior high school (once in Oklahoma, once in Florida), it went beyond taunts and insults, and there was no one around to stand up for me. That's when my "inner friend" exposed himself. I refer to it as my "Popeye Moment" -- "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more."

In the five or ten seconds the "fight" lasted, neither of us did any real damage to the other (other than a pair of broken glasses both times, which I caught hell for at home).

But the bullying stopped.

(Unfortunately, I was still a skinny, nerdy, four-eyed, pimply shrimp, but at least the pimples went away eventually.)