No, I mean fisticuffs, pugilism. A physical altercation is every bullies worst fear. Do you think bullies care one way or another about getting into trouble? From my experience, most bullies are troubled kids to begin with, kids who already get into their fair share of trouble, either due to poor grades, skipping school, acting out in class, etc. Oft they are of the more popular class of kids, which is why other kids stand by and witness something so wrong as bullying, and do nothing about it.
At first, I thought the same as you, though. I would tell a teacher. I would go home and tell my parents. My mom would go to school and talk to the teachers about it, etc. All of these things did nothing but make the problem worse, because it calls ATTENTION to it, which is what every bully wants. They want people focused on their target, and not themselves. It's like throwing chum into shark infested waters while there are divers overboard...it's asking for trouble. I got into my first real fight in 5th grade. With a kid who had been bullying me since I first started grade school. Before the fight, there was not a day that went by that this kid didn't do SOMETHING, be it push me while in line, or push me from behind while I was peeing to make me miss or whatever, or thump my ear, etc. After the fight, that kid never, not once, ever, bothered me again. Nor any of his friends. Never had another problem for the rest of the year, really. Then I got into middle school...different building, different kids. The bullying started up again. I got into three separate fights in middle school, and got busted for fighting once. Got into trouble. But you wanna know how many problems I had with bullies after those first few fights? Not a single ****ing problem, from ANYONE. Did I WIN all three fights? No. One got busted up by a teacher, one I won handily, and the other I got beat up by three boys. Then high school. And I only had to get into ONE fight in highschool, to make the new round of bullying stop. And I beat THAT kid bloody. After that? Three years of school, sans bullying.
I've had anger issues most my life. I am dealing with that now, and I feel I've gotten a lot better. it's the flip side, the ugly side, of the coin. Yes, determination, yes, all those other positive traits, all results of bullying. But also the anger. Do nothing about bullies, and you'll learn all you'll ever need to know about the kind of festering, seething rage that can poison a person for most of their young life. The kind of bottled up rage that causes a kid to go to school with guns and open fire. Or to kill themselves.
The only good bully is a bleeding bully.
