Every morning, junior Austin Welborn wakes up and plans on having a bad day.

“I expect the worst and hope for the best,” Welborn said.

Welborn has been bullied and abused since he was around four or five years old. During that time, he claims that there hasn’t been one case of bullying that stands out from the rest.

“I don’t really have a worst [bullying experience],” Welborn said. “Everyday is the worst.”

Welborn doesn’t understand why he has been verbally and physically harassed throughout the years. On average, he claims he is harassed three to four times a day.

“I don’t know [why people bully me] because I have been told I’m one of the nicest people,” Welborn said. “I just don’t know. People just don’t tend to like me for some reason.”

Some days are worse than others.

“[I feel] depressed, isolated, not wanted around the school,” Welborn said. “There will be days that I just [don’t want to] come because of the fact I don’t want to deal with [bullying]. There will be days when it’s better, and I’ll come.”

Most of the damage Welborn feels from bullying is mental and emotional pain. In one case, Welborn was physically harassed at school for no apparent reason, leaving him with more than just physical injuries.

“The day before I got … beat [up], the kid had verbally threatened me very many times,” Welborn said. “[I] let him throw punches, and when he got tired, I just kind of walked away. Psychologically, [I was hurt] pretty bad. I didn’t want to come back at all to the school. Physically, [I had] bumps and bruises on my head, arms and back.”

When a bully confronts him, Welborn tries to avoid any further conflict while still standing up for himself.

“Depending on what the situation is, … either I’ll walk away or I’ll try to talk to them,” Welborn said. “If [what they say is] not true, [I will] just tell them it’s not factual, it’s not true. But if it is true, [I] just kind of shake it off and walk away.”

Welborn feels that he can’t confide in anyone about his situation. He keeps his feelings to himself until he can’t control them any longer.

“I’ll bottle it up for so long, and then I’ll explode on my parents, or I’ll break down,” Welborn said.

Although he faces harassment regularly, Welborn doesn’t feel spiteful towards others. He does, however, feel the need to keep people at a distance.

“I love people, but I tend to push away people I don’t want to deal with,” Welborn said. “I’ve pushed away more people because they were closer to me because of the fact that I don’t want to deal with drama and stuff like that.”

Because of his experiences with bullying, Welborn believes that no one deserves to be treated rudely. He wishes everyone could learn to respect other people’s differences.

“Bullying is something that shouldn’t happen,” Welborn said. “Everyone should be accepting of who you are, but it doesn’t always happen that way. Bullying, in my experience, is the worst part of my day to day life, but I accept it and move on and try to work with what I have got to make my day better.”