I was bullied at secondary school, and occasionally in primary as well. I was insulted and treated like a freak almost everyday, and I didn't know why. I figure it was because I was an incredibly person to easy target, and I also looked really lame (my single mother only gave me second hand clothing, including a second uniform that was way oversized for me. I had glasses that were really cheap and shitty, always falling apart and had sellotape on them at one point lol. My hair was bushy and out of control. Think of harry potter and hermione granger combined. Thats what I looked like). Someone could easily make a mean comment or do something nasty to me and nothing would happen to them. They probably knew that so they didn't care. No idea what the mindset of that is, never understand being cruel to a person for no reason. Guess it's just amusing to them, or makes them feel like authority.
I still remember how that felt when I got back from school. It was this horrible, crushing feeling of hopelessness and loss of self esteem. If I saw the person who bullied me the most and caused other people to I would probably want to punch those people in the face. I was already shy and timid, had no friends when I changed school so I was often alone. For the first 2 years, I hardly went to because of bullying and generally I hated it. Who would to be called a freak, while not really getting anything out of it at the end of the day? This did affect things in the long term. I was put in lower classes later because teachers were stupid and thought i was lacking in knowledge when it was simply because I didn't attend. I believed them and didn't realise I was capable of studying in the standard classes. Now I have to do more years of college, basically how that turned out.
The bullying probably made more self conscious and perhaps is the reason why i'm so unsociable around my classmates these days. I just expect them to turn against me or have just learned not to talk to them. Must be why I'm more sociable outside any academic type of environment these days.
Who knows though, maybe it actually made me stronger and gave me a thicker skin. I did report bullying when I could, although it took a while sometimes. I never spoke to anyone about it. When I tried my family would say "are you getting beaten up everyday?" to which i answered no so they said "that's not bullying" pretty much. When I was upset in my room my mother would just shout at me and say I need to get a grip and realise reality basically.