Definition: Given a real-life anecdote of a complex ethical situation, generate a suitable title that describes the main event/root cause of the situation. Imagine that the given text is a social media post, and you have to write the title of the post, so the users can decide to read the main text or not.
Input: It has been 20 years since I graduated from high school. In high school, I bullied everyday by a particular group of boys. They were very tall/large, popular, and played baseball. It was the 90's and I was a kid who dressed all in black - nothing way too over the top. Some black lipstick and pretty standard black clothing. I didn't have a whole bunch of money at my disposal. (I remember being so excited when, for my sweet 16, my mom actually sprung for a very expensive pair of black doc martens. That was my big gift for the ol' milestone.)   


Anyway, "mean" is an understatement to use on these guys. It wasn't just "being mean" - it was psychological, and at times physical, abuse. Stalking. Harassing. You name it. They did things like going through my purse and breaking my stuff and vandalizing my car. I remember once I was so sad when they'd pulled out a "Link" (legend of zelda) keychain and colored all over it with permanent black marker - kinda of a message because all I wore was black. It was completely ruined and a very close friend had gifted it to me. Such a small thing, but it made me very sad. Beyond that, things escalated to "Freak" and "you want to suck my dick?" every time I passed them in the hall. There was a lot of sexual harassment that eventually surfaced because I am female. The worst was when one of them left a note on my desk, after having heard a rumor that I was a lesbian (I am not a lesbian). The note read, "Faggots like you belong locked up in cages. If you weren't a girl, I would smack you so hard that your eyes would fly to the back of your skull."   


I had some close friends in high school but I definitely wasn't popular. I was a troubled teen because my 21 year old brother died my freshman year (brain cancer) so I was dealing with that on top of these bullies.

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Anyway... fast forward 20 years later. I managed to never attend a high school reunion. I had absolutely no fond memories of the place. I still have close friendships with some of my good friends from that time period, however. We are friended on social media. Last week, a friend of mine sent me an invite to an upcoming reunion event. When I read the event description, 3 of the aforementioned bullies were the ones hosting. My friend justified the invite with, "Well... obviously they've probably changed. I want to go...etc." So I rsvp'd "maybe" (with a strong likelihood of NOT going). As soon as I did that, all 3 of these guys immediately sent me a friend request. I hesitantly accepted, placed them on a restricted list, and contemplated removing them later on down the line. 

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Later on, I re-read the event description and something caught my eye. They listed each of their names in the description and in parentheses beside their names, they posted the company at which they worked. One worked at a mortgage lending company. The second worked at a realty company. And the third worked in homeowner's insurance. My alarm bells went off and I began speaking to a few other friends of mine about this. "Doesn't it seem like we might be walking into a sales pitch?" was what I asked. Each of them agreed that it seemed very off. Then I visited all three of these guys' profiles and every update on their profiles was a sales pitch for a house, an insurance rate, or a home loan. One of them even used an insurance ad for his company as his profile photo.

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 And, by the way, my friends said that as soon as they rsvp'd the event, each of these dudes turbo-friended them as well.

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So... I sent a private message to these guys. I called them out on their profiles and the event description, saying it seems like this is a sales event disguised as a high school reunion. I also asked why any of them would friend me because each of them hated me when we were kids.

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One guy responded and told me that I was crazy - that none of them hated me, that they were "just having fun" and they were "just immature kids." Then he went on to say, "And so what if we maybe sell something at the reunion? IF we sell our services great - if not, at least everyone can have free food and fun!" 

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I responded back saying that everything he said about high school was the most dismissive, gaslighting pure bullshit I'd ever heard, citing that the things they did to me led me to having to seek therapy in later years. Then I basically said, "Fuck you..." and blocked them. 

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I probably would not have held a grudge this long had they been sincere in really wanting to hold a reunion, but I feel like these guys are still bullies - just in a different, slimy way. 

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Am I an asshole for cursing them out like that? It felt really good and you could almost hear the mic drop at the end of my message. And hitting that "block" button was cathartic as hell. 

cursing out my former high school bullies