Matthew Gates https://notetoservices.com 5m 1,191 #karma
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Today is October 21, Unity Day, or National Awareness Of Bullying and Prevention Day
The pure look of joy when I reconnected with everyone from my childhood through Facebook over 10 years ago. The reconnection also meant that my bullies were actually adding me on Facebook. Interesting enough, I never added any one of them. It was as if, they were adding data about themselves, which caused Facebook to “Find Friends” that were relateable to you. In this case, it was our schools that connected us. I never reject anyone except those I really don’t know from a Facebook friend request. And as I added them, even my bulliest, I noticed they all had something in common: all my bullies got fat, and that is the beauty of karma.
As a child, I was overweight. I loved food. I didn’t love it, but when I ate, it made me feel good. I did exercise as a kid, but I probably snacked more often than I should have. It didn’t help that my mom, and I don’t blame her, but my mom had no clue what she was feeding me. In the 1990s, processed food was just starting to take over the mainstream of our daily food intake. McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, and everything else was building a repoire of how great their food was and how fast it was. No one really questioned just what they were eating or how healthy it was.
It all looked like food and tasted like food, albeit the fact that every single fast food restaurant has a very unique signature flavor in their food. No one questioned anything, but people did not eat it every single night, as they do now, especially families. The obesity epedemic was definitely starting to rise, and as a kid, unknownst me, the food I was eating was causing me to gain weight. I have struggled with weight loss and food consumption my whole life. I have trained myself to eat very little, sustain myself, and even lost a lot of weight in the process, allowing for my body to feast on its own fat, rather than add fat to my waist line.
Getting fat was not fun. I got teased in elementary school, middle school, and even some of high school. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig were amongst the common jokes. I also grew to despise myself, as a fat kid, and it has followed me into later life, where I do not feel sorry for fat, overweight, or obese people. I had firmly believed it was always a choice. And for some, it is. For others, which I came to understand: we all have to work on something. Sometimes we know people who can eat whatever they want and not gain a pound or you have people like myself, who looks at a donut and I’ve gained 6 pounds. If I think about chocolate cake, it adds 10 pounds.
Yes, I am probably mentally ill and diseased when it comes to how I think about the obesity epedemic. However, I am no bully myself, though I have probably said some insulting things without realizing it. In my adulthood, I managed to see 180 pounds, but eventually managed to settle on 230 as my weight, and can always “stand to lose a few pounds.” Now that you know about me and my problem with weight. Let’s get back to the bullys.
When I was younger, I had a few bullies who are like friends yet not. In school, I only spoke when spoken to, but hardly was anyone ever my friend. Most of my bullying was more verbal than physical, which definitely hurts just as much. However, when you grow up in an area where you go to school with the same kids throughout your childhood, they become like family to you. Thus, my bullies added me on Facebook. And as they added me, I noticed something about every one of them: they became they bullied me for. And that is sweet karma taking its time but hitting it where it hurts.
Yes, I may be overweight by a few pounds, but I had always worked on it, and managed to come up with some secrets to weight loss specifically for my own body. However, when I saw them, I did not laugh. I knew they were adults. I knew they had jobs and kids now. But to see them gain the weight and probably weigh as much as I weighed for most of my life, was a bittersweet sight to see.
It is a hard message for most kids to understand: you may be bullied now and it hurts. You may think about suicide but don’t do it. Your bullies are there for a reason: so you know how to deal with the real world and hard situations. You either confront them or you ignore them. Those are your choices. It is completely up to you on how you want to react and engage. While we all call for teachers and parents to get involved: the thing is, if you handle it yourself through communication, and it may lead to a few physical acts of violence, which would then allow your parents and teachers to legally get involved. But you did something. If you do nothing, you might avoid the violence. I did for the most part.
Either way, karma may have taken a while to do its job, but it is now nice to know that my bullies feel all of my pain. I just had to go through that pain earlier in life. It hardly pains me now. Yes, I am overweight. Yes, I am always trying to lose weight. No, I can’t eat whatever I want. Yes, I care about my body. And I know a lot about health. It all happened for a reason. If I could change the past, I would certainly make it so that I was not bullied, but it still feels like karma has justified everything and I did not have to do anything.
Time is the tool in which all things come to face justice, no matter how good or bad or lenient it may be. Everyone has their time and will face what it is they are meant to face. This is not to say that you should not act or do something to immediately defend yourself, but karma will always get the best and even the worst of us all. Sometimes, we may think we got away with something, but karma will always find a way to give everyone exactly what they deserve.
I wish no ill will on any of my childhood bullies or even my adult ones. I only know that everyone will get what they deserve. I have many more stories on events like this occuring, including my boss, which is for another confession. Just know that no matter what you are facing, no matter what you have been through, and no matter who did it to you, they will face their karma too, just as you will.
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