School bullying not a problem where I come from stateside

[MattHanson1990]

As virtually all of us on here know, bullying is an epidemic across public schools in the U.S. However, in my ancestral home of Los Alamos, New Mexico, there is no school bullying whatsoever. Sure, the students would tease one another from time to time, but I experienced no physical violence. Even in middle school and high school, bullying wasn't a problem, and the students were more inclusive towards outsiders. In other words, they weren't cliquish like they would be in many other parts of America. Even many of the girls were friendly and affectionate towards me. Two of my close female friends in the U.S. of Gay, I've been friends with since high school. The main reasons I didn't try dating in high school were that my parents wanted me to focus on my schooling pretty much to the exclusion of a relationship, I was quite shy from one unpleasant rejection in middle school to the end of my sophomore year, and most of these girls didn't click with my personality in a lot of ways the more I got to know them. However, I danced with several girls at prom and the homecoming dance my junior and senior years.

Although the public schools in Los Alamos are less toxic environments than elsewhere stateside, I still felt some pressure to be popular. I was well-liked in high school despite being more introverted, but there was this one guy who the most popular one at the time. Not only he was on the varsity football team, he was also very extroverted and loud. But it only bothered me a little. Additionally, the students still have the live-to-work materialistic mindset, albeit they're kinder to others unlike most other places in America. After all, many of them go to university in California (or some other part of the U.S. that is known for its top-tier schools). And most of the foreigners in Los Alamos are Northeast Asian.

But the bottom line is that because of where I was raised, I didn't experience much of the same stuff that Winston and many others had to go through growing up in the States. Even to this day, school bullying isn't a problem in Los Alamos. I was teased at times, but nothing really traumatizing. Most of my good times in the U.S. were when I was in high school. It wasn't until university that loneliness began to take a toll on me, especially the years after my mom suddenly passed away.

[Nailer]

There's a lot of school violence in blue-collar America. Even just look at the cartoons. A guy is considered manly if he can fight.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygrEVnrg3Ic[/youtube]