Yahoo Lifestyle People Are Sharing What Happened To Their School Bullies Later In Life, And Some Stories Will Leave You Completely Speechless
Reddit user u/don1Juan- asked the community: "Anyone who still knows their bully from school, what are they doing now?" Hundreds of people replied to the thread to share updates on their former bullies. Some were surprisingly positive, but others were dark, twisted, or just plain absurd. Here's what people revealed:
1."She friend-requested me on Facebook a few years ago and was posting Bible verses, inspirational quotes, etc. I'd hoped she'd grown. Then, she posted about how her sons had been in trouble at school multiple times and accused of bullying when it was really just 'boys being boys' and how ridiculous it all was. That was a quick block for me."
2."My bully is now a psychologist. After retirement, I moved to an island (in Northern Ontario) and found out he is practicing here. I really want to make an appointment with him and ask him, 'WHY?' Does he realize what all the bullying over six years (seventh-twelfth grade) did to me?"
3."My class bully became a serial killer and has spent the last 45 years in state prison. Dismemberment, body parts under his bed, severed testicles in his dad's car when he was 18, on and on."
4."He messaged me on Facebook 15 years later to apologize for bullying me and to tell me he's becoming a priest."
5."He found Jesus and really does live up to it. He's big on service to the community, helps organize the food pantry, is often in a leadership position for whatever charitable cause he's working toward, and lives a pretty frugal, modest life. He even stopped me at work one day just to apologize for the person he used to be. He said he'd understand if I didn't want to forgive him for it, but he still wanted to do something to make things right."
6."He became a famous basketball player, and it all started with throwing rolled-up papers at his classmates."
7."She was my best friend at first. Then, she and another girl started bullying me. We were the only three girls in the class, so things like changing for gym class were horrible. They bullied me at school and outside of school. They sent hundreds of text messages telling me how everybody hated me and how ugly I was. They hacked into some of my social media profiles and ridiculed me, too. She messaged me some years later, asking me how I was. I told her, 'Sorry, I am not interested in talking to you.' She called me very arrogant, stuck up, and told me she did nothing wrong. Now that I am an adult, I hope I never have to hear from her/see her ever again."
8."I wouldn't call him a full-fledged bully, but he was just a general a-hole to me in high school. He worked at the high school where my wife is an administrator. She said he told off a few bullies in his class. He told them he was that guy and regrets it. We talked a few times at events and had no hard feelings about the past. We both moved on. He never apologized, but he tried to help the next generation be better. I respect people who move on from high school much more than those still stuck in high school 20 years later."
9."He randomly reached out to me on Facebook, not to apologize or anything, but to ask a favor. I work in a place with a large tourist presence, and he wanted me to squeeze him into a tour. When I pointed out our 'difficult past,' he responded, 'Now that I think about it, I guess I did kind of treat you badly,' and stopped there."
10."They all became cops. It’s absurd how consistent that was."
11."I came across his Instagram account. He's a typical 'Instagay' with around 20k followers. He bullied me for being gay, so that was a plot twist."
12."One of the school bullies relentlessly bullied me in seventh and eighth grade. We became really good friends in ninth grade when we developed friends in common and realized we were into the same stuff. We are still friends 30 years later. He's a very kind person who has devoted his life to helping refugees."
13."She married a cousin of my husband's and convinced him to cut contact with his family."
14."He went to prison. He bullied me through the whole of primary school and even put me in the hospital once. I was 7. He was big for his age— heavyset and tall. I was a small girl. If I had a penny for every time an adult would tell me, 'He only does it because he likes you,' I'd have A LOT of pennies. He didn't like me. He HATED me. I don't know why. I never did anything to him. I was the only person he consistently picked on. I was a very sensitive child as well, so he'd always get a reaction — usually tears. It escalated and escalated until, eventually, I ended up in the hospital."
"We were separated after that incident and put into different classes. He lived a few streets away from me but never came near me outside of school. I heard years later that he was serving a long sentence in prison for armed robbery. I think someone got hurt as a result. He's out now and lives at home with his mother. The dude has aged about 20 years. I'm 36 now, but he looks mid-50s. I hope he's miserable."
15."My fifth-grade bully ended up as my sister-in-law. My husband's mom married her dad when we were all in high school. She didn't live with her dad, so I didn't realize it until one day when she came over to visit him while I was visiting my boyfriend. It was awkward. She had a bit of a drug problem, got pregnant, and ran off with her boyfriend, so she was only around for a few months. Fast forward a couple of decades, her dad dies, and she is completely bereft. No one wants to deal with her because of her mental and emotional problems, so I end up being the only one she can talk to about her dad's death. I was at the hospital with him and she lives out of state and couldn't get there in time. It's been a few years, and she still calls me every few months, and I listen while she has a long emotional ramble."
"She's told me a bunch of dark things about her dad — things that put her struggles into context. When she bullied me, her dad had just gone to jail. She clearly has some mental issues, but she's had some life experiences that really traumatized her, too. Now I feel compassion for the hurt 10-year-old who hurt me so long ago."
16."She runs a women's-only co-op farm in southern Washington. About six years ago, she messaged me on Instagram asking if I wanted to sponsor her (monthly donations). When I left her on read, she went on about how women need to stick together and that this experience would be 'life-changing' for me. I left her on read again, and she responded by saying how disappointed she was in me."
17."He was a bully to me in eighth and ninth grade. We became really close friends during our sophomore year of high school after working through a lot of stuff. Basically, he was a really insecure kid, and his bullying made him feel more secure. I was and still am an emotional person, which I got flack for a lot as a kid and for not being 'manly.' He moved to Georgia later that year. We stayed really good friends, mostly through video games. He ended up dropping out of college, getting into substances, and becoming very depressed. We've stayed in touch into our 30s. He came to my wedding. He's still using substances and is really depressed. But he's acknowledged those issues and is trying to do something about them now. I try to support him when I'm able."
18."She sells handcrafted jewelry and tried to create this entire podcast and TikTok account based on inner healing and chakras. She talked a lot about how she used to be an insecure bully with extreme body dysmorphia. It takes a lot to admit all of that, so I wish her well. It seems like she's in a way better place."
19."He became a local politician and got indicted for beating up his wife. He is divorced now and works for his dad's company overseas. I'm pretty sure he's still a bully."
20."I saw her again at a school reunion. She is (now) super enthusiastic and friendly with everyone. One hour into the reunion, she realized everyone was avoiding her, and nobody seemed happy to see her. She was so sure of herself that she decided to ask with a smile if there was a problem. One after the other, every one of us got to share a few horrible stories about her being a violent bully. Rest of the night, she just cried her eyes out. 'I didn't know you guys suffered so much. I was just joking! I am not a bad person. I don't remember any of this!' Blah, blah, blah. Honestly, it's a pity. I'm sorry she realized this so many years later. She really terrorized all of us for three years, so it was very therapeutic to see her like that."
21."He's living with and has a child with my sister. Not awkward at all... He always says he's changed, but it's obvious that he hasn't. And he's never once apologized for anything."
22."He's in jail for 25 to life for being an accomplice to murder."
23."He messaged me 10 years later to ask me on a date. I got to tell him I was in a very wonderful relationship. He said my boyfriend was very lucky to have me and that he regrets what he did and apologized. Oh, he also said I got really hot. He stalked my stories on Instagram for a few months and then unfriended me. It felt nice at the moment, but looking back, it felt like he only apologized because I wasn't a dorky 13-year-old anymore. I hope he's doing well now!"
24."This girl was two grades above me in high school and bullied me and many others all the time. She was 'popular' in high school and a pretty good athlete. Now, she is doing the MLM pyramid scheme stuff, and one day, she requested to follow me on social media. I accepted it, thinking maybe she had changed and honestly was a decent person now. Nope, I was wrong. She messaged me with, 'Hey girl, I haven't seen you in forever!' Blah, blah, blah. Then she proceeded to try and sell me some BS products, claiming they cure depression and all that jazz. I kindly said no thanks. But she didn't get the hint."
"Since I'm so open and vocal about mental health and how I struggle with it on my social media, she felt the need to be a crappy person and take advantage of the vulnerability. I finally had to block her. It makes me chuckle because she always judged others for not having brand-new clothes and materialistic things. And now she's desperately selling fake MLM products on her social media, hoping to become a billionaire."
25."My buddy was the bully. High school was like 15 years ago for us, but he messed with many kids during that time. He knocked books out of people's hands, ripped their projects in half, and did a leg sweep on a kid and broke his chin. He grew up to be an outstanding man. He was actually the best man at my wedding. Years after high school, we saw some classmates at a local bar, and he took it upon himself to apologize to them. His dad passed during the pandemic, so he works hard to take care of his mom and sister. The kid had quite the character development after high school."
26."He really matured and turned over a new leaf. He's working for an accounting firm, he opened a nice outdoor restaurant, has a house, a nice car, and a girlfriend. I did confront him not too long after high school and asked why he was so mean to me, and he told me he was young and insecure, and picking on a quiet, friendly classmate made him feel superior. He said he wasn't aware of how he was acting. He apologized. We're on opposite sides of the country, but we text occasionally to check in on each other. It gave me closure and inner peace, knowing that holding grudges is unnecessary and that we can all change."
27."He randomly tried to sext and hook up with me last year via Facebook (he is married), then two months later, crashed his car through a wall and into a small stream while drunk."
28."I was not bullied, but my very sweet, vulnerable best friend was. It might as well have been me; I went toe to toe with her bully several times. My BFF was extremely shy, but I was not. Her bully was actually my neighbor. Ultimately, we all went away to different colleges. The bully ended up dropping out a year in to get married to some guy she met in her dorm. They moved back home with her parents, he transferred colleges, and she dropped out. She got a job as a receptionist, maybe six months after moving home, at a hypnotherapy clinic and began an affair with the hypnotherapist (who was married with two kids). Her parents kicked her out, and her husband moved away. They decided to break up their respective marriages/families and move in together. She also became a hypnotherapist."
"After a few years of this, she had ANOTHER affair with her father's friend (gross!), who must've been at least 60 at the time. I believe she was about 24. That relationship broke up his longtime marriage. She ended up moving in with him. The last I heard was a few years ago (we are all about 40 now). She still lived in our town and bounced from man to man. She also left a path of destruction, as she's always had a penchant for seeking married men. She drifted back into hypnotherapy. I also heard she had been a sugar baby on and off over the years, but I have no proof. Clearly, she's had some serious self-esteem issues, though it excuses nothing. Meanwhile, my childhood best friend is a super successful pediatrician with a beautiful family and a handsome husband in another state. She's a winner, which always feels right in my mind."
29.And: "This is a different take, and I might get flack for it, but I was this girl's bully in middle school. I used to flip her off on the bus for some reason. There's no excuse, and I really have no idea what made me do/say mean things to her. Anyway, I felt terrible about it for years, and I finally sent her a (genuinely heartfelt) apology after all this time. I was scared it would open old wounds or appear like I was just trying to appease my guilt, so I had to choose my words carefully. I think it took me a long time to grow up, go to therapy, and reflect on all the years I've been rude to people who didn't deserve it."
"Surprisingly, she accepted my apology and opened up about how the trauma from it carried into her adult life, and she said hearing from me helped things a lot. She didn't blame me since we were kids, but I knew better. I regret what I've done to her. Anyway, I fully support apologizing to people you have bullied, as long as it's for the right reasons and you're prepared to get told to kick rocks. I wish my bullies would apologize; even this late in life, it would mean a lot, but I doubt that'll ever happen."
Oh wow, that was a wild ride. Do you know what happened to any of your former bullies? Tell us in the comments or submit anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
