First and foremost, I’d like to thank Amber, a friend and fellow blogger who inspired me to write this post.
The healing certainly didn’t happen overnight. My trial by fire ended during my senior year when I finally managed to escape my Oakley High School bullies through a school transfer. My new school, Roseberg High, felt like a paradise! Everyone there accepted me as I was, and I made so many new friends. I felt safe again and was finally able to relax and be myself.
I felt as if my life was finally beginning, and I could finally put Oakley High School behind me and move on. But it didn’t come without a few hang-ups. The last several months at Roseburg were the best of all four years of high school, but I didn’t realize that I was still carrying a lot of leftover baggage from the severe abuse I suffered at the old school.
Although I was in a much safer learning environment, there were afternoons during my first month at Roseburg when I’d have a long cry after I got home from school. Being four months pregnant at the time, I mistook the tears for the raging hormones of pregnancy. And though I loved my new school and all the people there, I regretted that I couldn’t have transferred schools earlier than I had. I was grieving the loss of so many years- years that I could never get back.

Child abuse with the eye of a young boy or girl with a single tear crying due to the fear of violence or depression caused by hunger and poverty and being afraid of bullying at school.
My then-husband worked a twelve-hour graveyard shift, and I spent most nights at home alone. In the afternoons, he would be asleep when I’d come in from school. So, I had plenty of time to grieve.
During those times, I also suffered flashbacks of the bullying, and they would come automatically and without warning- flashbacks of being shoved to the floor, brutally beaten, cursed out, and yelled at. At night I’d have nightmares.
In these nightmares, I’d be swimming in a lake and enjoying the water. Suddenly I’d stop and look around to see that my classmates from Oakley High were in the water as well, and they surrounded me. One of them would push my head underwater, and I’d fight like crazy to come back up for air. But as soon as I’d get my head above water and gasp for breath, they’d shove me back under again. Once more, I’d have to hold my breath and fight with my arms flailing in the water, trying to come up and get away from them.
Finally, I couldn’t hold my breath any longer and had no other choice but to give up the fight to live. Just as I inhaled and felt the searing burn of water fill my lungs, I’d wake up with a jolt. I also had another dream that one of my old bullies hunted me down and shot me. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, so frightened I couldn’t move a muscle. I’d only lay there, trembling in the darkness.
During my first month out, I also dealt with a lot of sadness and anger that didn’t show. Roseburg High was my happy place, and while I was there during the day, I didn’t have those emotions, nor did I have the flashbacks. The sadness, anger, flashbacks, and dreams only happened when I was home alone or sleeping, and I wanted so badly to forget about Oakley and live in the present.
During that month, I also felt a degree of shame- shame that I now realize wasn’t mine to bear. In my mind, I’d ask myself,
“What’s wrong with me? I’m out of that hellhole now! I should be happy about that! And I am, but why do I keep having these episodes of crying and feeling angry any time I’m alone?”
When I felt angry, I wasn’t as mad at my former classmates but myself for allowing them to tear me down and bring me so low.
I felt like a battered wife who’d just left her abusive husband!
I was fortunate, though. It didn’t take long for the raw emotions, the flashbacks, and the nightmares to go away, and I begin to focus on making great memories with my Roseburg friends and classmates. During that month, I had allowed myself to feel and to cry. I talked to a few of my most trusted family and friends.
I realized that I wasn’t wrong to have those emotions as they were signs that something was terribly wrong in my previous environment. I also began to understand that I wasn’t what was wrong. I’m thankful that I didn’t bury those emotions like so many survivors of bullying do. I’ve since concluded that what I experienced was the release of feelings that had, for a long time, been suppressed.
They were emotions that I wasn’t allowed to have in the old environment and was afraid to feel and show because I knew they’d punish me for it with more bullying. The only alternative had been to keep those feelings buried deep. And although my parents were well-meaning, there were times that neither of them could accept the emotions I felt.
Only after I got out of there did they begin to pour forth.
After a month of riding that roller coaster, I can tell you that everything finally subsided, and I felt like a new person! I didn’t get any therapy, although I should have. I was young, newly married, and expecting my first child, and everything was changing so fast I could barely keep up. So, I worked through it on my own.

Beautiful cloudscape over the sea, sunrise shot
And with the help of a new and nourishing environment, a few trusted people in my life, and new friends, I was able to get through the horrible after-effects of bullying and peer abuse. I began to set goals to learn about computers and make Honor Roll at my new school. As my grades skyrocketed and I achieved those goals, so did my confidence!
Sadly, most survivors of bullying aren’t as lucky as I was. Many take years to even get through the grief.
(Continued in Part 2)
Amazing post! Keep going, you are epic<3333333
Thank you so much, sweetie. ❤
Brilliant post, often happens when you start to relax the issues all come to the fore ready to be released you bottled up so much pain to survive the bullying. You were lucky to change schools with a kinder set of students. It is hard the letting go as it is like reliving the pain again but actually you have won the battle and rising into the person you should be.
This means so much! And you made such a great point. They were feelings that had to be processed and would’ve been sooner or later. It was a lot of toxic stuff that needed to come out! Thank you so much for your kindness! 😊
You are so welcome and you are helping many who have been bullied come to terms with what they are facing or faced.
This really touches my heart in ways I could never describe. 💗
It is amazing isn’t it. Change of environment and you were treated completely different which speaks volumes about the character of the people at your other school. Here you are senior year and come to a new school pregnant yet they were automatically accepting. It is a metaphor for life really. It depends on who our inner circle is.
Absolutely right. I’ve come to realize that the old environment as a whole was super-toxic and not the least bit healthy.
It really does seem like that because look at the difference. One place you were an immediate outcast, the other place immediately accepted and I don’t know how much distance there is between the two schools but I am guessing not a lot. What changed? People!
Right. My old school and new school were in neighboring counties and two towns apart. They were about 30 miles from each other.
And about six weeks after I transferred, some of my old Oakley classmates actually piled into a little dark Ford Escort and came to my new school one afternoon, asking for my street address and where I was living. Scary!
The Roseburg kids smart mouthed them and told them to get lost. They told them not to ever come back on their turf again.
After that, they never came back.
That is scary. I sent you an email with a question. Sorry to bother you.
I’ll check it as soon as I get home. Getting ready to go in this store and do some Christmas shopping! 🙂
Thank you! It is just one question that I would like to know the answer to if you could help me with it and find out.
I just sent you a reply. I don’t know which was the worst. I can ask him the next time I see him.
Thanks I responded back to you. Can you call him or text him or something. I am not trying to be difficult. Just as a single parent trying to figure out what to look for, things like that. When I need to step in etc
Thank you, I sent you a reply to. Can you please text him or call him or something right away. I am trying to do this single parent thing right and need to know when I should intervene etc. Thank you!
I talked to him this morning and he told me that the worst he ever got from his brother was in front of a girl. She was a neighbor they both had a crush on. I hope this helps.
Well that’s not entirely what I was asking but okay, thanks.
I apologize. That was all he told me and said his brother knocked him out cold. But don’t let it get to the point where they knock each other out cold.
PTSD is a horrible thing. I know from personal experience how tough it gets. It took me 15 years to sleep peacefully. So happy to read your inspiring journey. You’re truly a strong woman 🤗🤗🤗
Thank you so much. Back in those days, I didn’t think I had PTSD. I thought PTSD was something only combat veterans had. Now I know better.
I guess those who suffered emotional problems are the last one to be aware.
And well, in a way you were a combat soldier. A lone soldiers against the bullies.
That’s a great way of looking at it. And you know? You’re right on every point.
Brilliant post. You are loved so much! Amber ❤
This means so much, Amber. Thank you. 😊