Welcome to this month’s BRAVE Interview with … ME!

I have changed how I arrange these interviews and for the first time since I began The BRAVE Interview series, I don’t have someone to feature. Last night I remembered something that happened in my girlhood days that had always been painful to think about, and I realized that it was actually a pretty brave act. I decided to take this as a sign that it’s my turn–especially fitting since it’s my birthday month!

This is me (I am the second one from the bottom–surrounded by my extended family), at about the age that this event happened.

We moved a lot when I was growing up. I didn’t have much time to make friends before it was time to move again. When we did stay in one place for a few years, I still had to change schools, because the town we lived in had built a new elementary school and I was in the zone designated to go to the new one.

Not only was it hard to make and keep friends, but when I was about ten years old, I somehow attracted a bully.

Her name was Linda. We were the same age. She lived on my street, so we took the same bus to and from school. We got on and off at the same stop.

There was no escape.

When we were on the bus, she and her friends would taunt me and call me names. Once, someone stole my little blue pocketbook and I didn’t realized it until I got home. After we got off the bus, she followed behind me, continued the name calling, pushing me, kicking me, trying to grab my stuff. She challenged me to fight her if I didn’t like it. I remember telling her, “I can’t fight you here in the street when you have all your friends to help you.” She then let loose with more name calling and shoves. She always had people with her when she was harassing me. I was always outnumbered.

One day, I decided that enough was enough. I had to act.

I had never been in a fight before and I was terrified, but I knew that it would never stop if I didn’t do something. It might not stop anyway, but at least I would have tried. When I got home from school, I told my mother that I was going over Linda’s house to fight her and left.

I arrived at her house and knocked on the door. I was hyperventilating. I didn’t pause for a second, though, because I knew I would lose my nerve if I did. Her mother (whom I and my family knew), answered the door. I said I was there to see Linda. I waited while she went to get her, and then there she was, standing in front of me.

Linda: What are you doing here?

Me: I am here to fight you.

She started laughing and pushed me and said,”Great, let’s go,” and walked onto the front lawn. She immediately began hitting me. I had some vague idea that a fight would involve slapping, maybe even punching, and probably kicking, based on what she had been doing already. I was shocked when she began biting and scratching me, pulling my hair out … The words: “This is not a fair fight! This is not a fair fight!” rang through my head.

Meanwhile, her whole family had come out, as well as other people in the neighborhood, I guess, because there was a ring of people around us, cheering Linda on. I was bleeding, my ears were ringing, and I thought I might throw up, but I wasn’t going to quit. I was there to finish it.

Finally, I heard my mother’s voice, working her way through the circle of people, saying,

“What are you all doing? What is wrong with you people?”

She pulled Linda off of me, took me by the hand, and pulled me away from that place. After we got home, she asked me why I did that. I told her about the bullying. She wanted to know why I hadn’t told her before. I didn’t know why then, but I know now: I was ashamed. I felt that it was somehow my fault.

I wish I could say that was the only physical assault I suffered in my life, but it was not.

It was, however, the first time I decided to stop being a victim, took my power back, and took action.

For whatever reason, she never bothered me again after that … and then we moved again.

Read the other BRAVE Interviews: The BRAVE Interviews

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IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE INTERVIEWED FOR THIS SERIES ABOUT SOMETHING BRAVE YOU HAVE DONE IN YOUR OWN LIFE, SEND ME AN EMAIL HERE: karen@karencreamer.com