My pal Neil Gaiman speaks of being bullied when he was in school. I went through much the same thing — in my case because I'd skipped a few grades so I was younger and punier than my classmates, and also because I'd missed the grades where they teach you the games. I don't think I felt bullied so much as I felt I was being treated like an alien presence. No one was particularly mean to me, at least not intentionally.
They just treated me like I was different and it took me a while to realize, as Neil says, that different is good; that if you're like everyone else, the odds are all you'll ever be is one of them. But if you're not one of them, you have the chance of becoming something that you'll like better. If others do too, that's even more glorious. Here's Neil…