Hello and welcome back to another edition of creating your UNSTOPPABLE attitude for KICKASS Success with yours truly Christopher Rausch. Your friendly neighborhood teen mentor, professional speaker, author, and life coach!
First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR to YOU!!! And since we have a brand new slate of a year right in front of us let’s start by making a pact between you and me! Ready? Alright, together let’s make 2017 the year we kick our lame excuses, that have been holding us back, straight to the curb! Then, let’s build and strengthen our attitudes so we are absolutely UNSTOPPABLE in anything we set our minds to achieve and overcome any challenges along the way! What do ya say? Are you in???
Alright, before I begin with this month’s edition, I’m sending out a super huge “THANK YOU!!!” shout-out for making my first article “How I Was Bullied and What I Learned from It!” such a huge hit! Now, if you haven’t had a chance to read the first one yet, I strongly suggest you do that now before taking this one in. As the title above suggests, this is a “Part II”, so you’ll need to know what’s going on from “Part I” order to really get the entire message and how you can learn from my experiences now.
The whole reason I’m doing a “Part II” is to now share with you how I went from the kid being bullied to the supreme jerk who became the bully. Oh! You didn’t see that coming did ya?
And since we’re talking about ditching excuses all you have to do is click your mouse HERE and you’ll be magically transported straight to it! Don’t delay – go today! Then, once you’re done, I’ll be right here waiting for you to share with you the rest of my roller coaster of a story! I promise, you won’t want to miss it!
MY STORY – PART II:
So after years and years of physical and mental abuse by both my immediate family, the bullies in my neighborhood, and of course, at school, little Christopher Rausch started getting just a little bit angry and fed up with all the beatings! Have you ever been so angry at someone that all you want to do is cause them as much pain possible? Perhaps a case of bitter revenge running through your beaten and bruised veins? Well, if you have, you’re definitely not alone. Welcome to where the story picks back up for me after being bullied for most of my young life.
I think the first real time I became the bully was with this rather large kid named Chuck Yates. Now, just to paint a picture for you, Chuck was one of those kids who always had crumbs on his shirt, spare food in his pockets, and saved remnants of what he ate last still on his fingers just in case he wanted to lick them later for desert. Get the visual I’m painting here for ya?
And that’s not all there is to tell about Chuck. Noooo sir! Chuck was also a “taunter”! You know, an instigator full of stupid stuff he’d smart off to you with. He’d pick on the smaller, weaker kids saying hurtful and mean stuff in this horribly annoying whiney voice. And, considering his larger size, the younger kids didn’t mess with him in fear of losing a finger or getting sat on. Yes, he was known to sit on people who made fun of him. No lie.
So, anyway, there I was, minding my own business during recess, when chubby Chuck waddled up to me, Ding Dong in one hand and the other hand spastically pointing at me, spouting something stupid like “What are you doing Chris piss? No one picked you to play dodgeball again? Oh poor Chris piss, no one wants to play with you!”
So, as I recall, I nicely asked Chuck to just leave me alone and continue enjoying his afternoon sugar snack and perhaps pick on someone his own size for a change. Well, that my friends, just made him taunt me even more. He knew he got to me and was coming back for more! Ever had someone do this to you? Remember how it made you feel?
Well, let me just say, this was not the day for Chuck to take that next step with me that’s for sure. You know that feeling just before you’re about to SNAP like a pretzel stick? Well, I didn’t know about that feeling until just then when dear Chuck decided to come after me again.
Then, seemingly from out of nowhere, I just went ape sticks and just started punching his face and body with every ounce of my being. I’m not gonna lie – I took every mean emotion and memory of getting beat, that was stored up inside me, and let it ALLLLLL out that afternoon on poor unsuspecting Chuck.
Then, like with all the other scuffles that happened before, the kids on the playground quickly surrounded us yelling, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” That of course alerted the teachers who came stampeding over to demanding we stop fighting “right this minute!” But ultimately it took more than a few of them to pull me off Mr. Yates. Let me tell you, I was bound and determined to teach him a hard lesson that day about never again calling me “Chris Piss!”
In the end, as the recess bell rang, there I stood, a bit bruised and scratched, but nonetheless victorious in teaching Chuck to finally keep his Ding Dong eating mouth shut! Seriously, I thought I should get an award! I didn’t get that, but what I did get was detention for a week and a letter sent to my mom.
But what happened after all that was really surprising to me and I guess a lot of other kids too. All of the sudden, yours truly, Christopher Rausch (they called me Chris back in those days) was being hailed as the kid who finally taught Chuck Yates a lesson about keeping his mouth shut at school. And you know what I thought of all this new attention? Yup, I loved it! I drank it up like pitcher of ice cold Kool-Aid on a hot summer day! Dig?
From that point on, with the adrenaline pulsing through my veins, and from all the high fives from the “cool” kids at school, I suddenly now became the bully (insert Jaws music here). From that afternoon forward, I was hooked! Who would be the next person to mess with the new sheriff in town? Trust me – I looked and found there was no shortage of kids to test my new found confidence on.
WHAT I LEARNED:
In the interest of time, let’s just say I had my fair share of fights won and fights lost. But my moment in the spotlight didn’t last long. And for that, I’m forever grateful. Fortunately for me, I had some super true friends who finally pulled me aside and gave me some advice I’ll never forget.
They said, “Chris, you know better than to pick on other kids just to make the cool kids like you! That’s not who you are! Listen, an eye for an eye is no way to live life! Treat people how you want to be treated and instead of picking on them because they are different, why don’t you try to better understand them and maybe you’ll find out you’re more alike than you thought!”
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me!”
Are you kidding me? Seriously? Whoever thought this saying was a good idea to tell kids to say to other kids when they were being made fun of probably didn’t think it all the way through!
All I ask of you now is to please consider each person you meet as someone you are similar to. Look for those similarities instead of the things different with them. Inside, we’re all the same. Same red blood, beating heart, kidneys, etc. get my drift?
If this article impacted you or someone you love, I’d appreciate hearing about it. My email is Christopher@ChristopherRausch.com
Until next time,
Christopher Rausch
About the Author: Christopher RAUSCH is a Speaker, Coach, Author, Radio Show Host and the creator of “The KICKASS Guide to Life™,” the complete guide to living your best personal and professional KICKASS™ life! He currently resides in Riverside, California. When he was young, Christopher’s life was anything but KICKASS™. He grew up in the inner city of Los Angeles, California. With his father nowhere in sight, Christopher’s mother nearly gave him up for adoption. Read More…