It’s been said that revenge is a dish best-served cold, meaning it’s more satisfying to get back at someone not directly after you’ve been wronged, but at a time that makes it most soul-destroying to the transgressor.
One woman turned to Reddit to recount her story of being endlessly harassed by her high school bully. But, as luck would have it, the perfect opportunity arose for her to sneakily give him his just desserts and ruin his whole summer.
More info: Reddit
High school bullies are the worst, but this teen figured out a way to anonymously get back at her own
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
After years of harassment, the tormented teen stumbled upon a sneaky way to punish her bully
Image credits: Splloganathan / Freepik (not the actual photo)
She found herself being the last person in class at the end of one day and noticed her bully’s end-of-year folder lying unattended
Image credits: tescka1 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Without a second thought, she quickly snuck the folder into her bag and made a hasty exit
Image credits: UniqueSignal5155
Once she was clear of the school, she dumped the documents in a dumpster behind Starbucks, forcing the bully to fail the course and spend his holiday in summer school
OP begins her post by telling the community that, the year she was a senior in high school, she was taking a journalism class, writing and illustrating for the monthly newspaper. She admits that she was, in her words, a “neurospicy weirdo” then, as she is now, which made her an easy target, being on the lowest rung of the teen social hierarchy.
She explains that one of the boys in the class was an absolute jerk, never missing an opportunity to call her names, deride her appearance, make her the butt of jokes, spit in her hair, trip her up, belittle her work, and generally make her life a living hell of unending torment.
OP goes on to share with her readers that, as the end of the semester approached, with graduation mere weeks away, the class had a huge final coming up—a folder that needed to contain every last piece of work the students had completed over the year. Absent work would result in deducted points and no work—a fail.
Well, one day when OP was the last one left in the classroom, she spotted her bully’s folder by the class workstation. Sensing the opportunity for a cunning get-back, she snuck the folder into her bag and left the school grounds. Without a second thought, she threw her tormenter’s work in a dumpster behind the nearby Starbucks and went on her merry way.
OP concludes her tale of ice-cold revenge by telling the readers that, without his folder (and his general slacker attitude), the bully failed the course and had to spend his whole vacation taking summer classes.
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Ever taken revenge on someone who did you wrong? How did it feel? Good or bad? Did you do it fast, or bide your time? And why do we, as humans, take revenge? We went looking for answers.
In her article for Psychology Today, Dale M. Kushner writes that who seeks revenge, and why, is shaped by our cultural heritage and individual personalities. Most people do not actually give in to acting out their revenge, choosing instead to move on with their lives. Scientists theorize that we may have evolved an adaptive internal scale that measures the costs of revenge against its benefits.
According to Kushner, in certain cultures, a need for revenge is borne out of public shame, while in individualistic cultures, vengeance is pursued when we believe ourselves or our rights have been dismantled or ignored. In societies that place a high value on collective identity, revenge can be kindled in response to the mistreatment of someone in our tribe or group.
In his article for Forbes, Mark Travers reports that a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology weighs the benefits of forgiveness against revenge in repairing one’s sense of self after a dehumanizing or victimizing experience. It’s well worth checking out if you’re holding onto thoughts of getting your own but pondering letting it go, too.
In the meantime, why not dive into this list of 43 acts of revenge that left people reeling and this Bored Panda collection of 30 savage ways people got revenge on their bosses before leaving their jobs? What do you think of the way OP turned the tables on her bully? Would you say the punishment fits the crime? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
In the comments, readers celebrated the teen’s tale of get-back and suggested further ways to taunt the bully even years after the dastardly deed
