Teen Ink

THE BEGINNING

My name is Maruf H. and I have been a victim of bullying since the third grade. My story begins in the third grade where I was at a young age of 8. From the third grade, I saw my classmates making fun of me, and not wanting to play with me during recess. I was pretty much on my own with the support of my parents and teachers at that time. When it was time for recess, I was either playing on my own or watching my classmate play at times. At that time, I did not know what was wrong with me, or why my classmates did not really want to do anything with me. Outside my school, there was a bully right in my household. Furthermore, my parents and I had rented a private house of a 5th grader named Borshon and his parents. As a child, I felt he was going to treat me as a friend and I was going to play with him during my free time and hang around him. However, that caused me to get bullied by him and his friends. Borshon and his friends use to push me around, physically hurt me, scare me and hurt me. There is a vivid incident in my life that occurred with Borshon and his friends that I still remember. Borshon’s friend had brought his puppy in our neighborhood. While they were making fun of me and laughing and making jokes of me, I somehow got stuck in a corner of the house with his friend’s dog. With nowhere to go, in front of me was a puppy and Borshon’s friend holding the leash of the dog. And all I saw was the dog barking at me while everyone there was laughing at me. I was extremely scared and started crying. I was crying so loud, that my parents heard from the house and had come down to save me. Ever since that incident, I have been afraid of dogs. I do not remember what happened after that between Borshon and me. I think I still had to hang around with him until he and his family left New York to Pennsylvania.