Do You Ever Regret Having Not Taken Some Form Of Action

I could have gotten one tormentor into some serious trouble as he belonged to some student organization, and I very much doubt that they’d approve of his mistreatment of another student. I ignored his verbal taunts on one particular bus ride back from vocational school, as I often did and he became physical and struck me in the back of the head and in the arm. I’m actually rather surprised and shocked that I let this go in anyway shape or form. Verbal taunts that could be blocked out and ignored (especially with the assistance of a Walkman) were one thing, but physically putting your hands on someone even back in 1997 is quite another. Thinking back on it I’m actually rather surprised that he made me a target in the first place. He looked and seemed more like someone who would be a victim of this sort of thing as opposed to a perpetrator. Awkward-nerdy looking guy, not very attractive, not in very good shape, targeting someone who only looks slightly different from himself. He tried to smooth things over after putting his hands on me, I guess you could say by saying he and his friends were just “messing with me.” I believe I told him to piss off when he approached me later. He was one of a group of idiots who would taunt and talk trash to and about me, perhaps trying to “test” me since I was pretty close in size to many of them. I just ignored them and this particular person was the only one who actually touched me. For some reason I was apprehensive about doing anything back to him on a moving bus. Maybe things would have been different if he touched me in a hallway or something. I seemed to have more assertiveness when I told him to “piss off” after he approached me to try and “smooth” things over. I don’t remember him bothering me again after this though. Others would occasionally I suppose try and “pass the time” on a boring bus ride, by picking at myself and others for the stupidest, most irrelevant things. One example is one guy would have “Trees” yelled at him because for their taste he spent “too much time” looking out the window at the trees on the side of the highway.” Others for real or perceived imperfections or issues. These were not young children some of them were high school juniors and seniors.

Have you ever regretted not taking any sort of action (fighting back, reporting etc.) someone who bullied you?

I kind of regret it now..

Or.. more that i wish i'd known back when i was a child all the things i know now. I would have felt far less on my own and powerless if i had the knowledge that I do now..

I would have called social services on my parents and I would have gone into foster care.. most of my problems would have been over and done with.I wasn't really bullied for the usual reasons like just being shy or awkward etc..
I was bullied for being dirty and poorly dressed.. for having a constant case of nits because my mother wouldn't buy any lotion to deal with it for me..
I was bullied for being weird and different and while i do have aspergers - that wasn't a major issue as far as i'm concerned.. (although perhaps they'd have bullied me anyway even if my appearance had been different.. maybe i'd still have been targeted.. )

On the other hand though.. if you gave me the chance to go back and do things differently - I wouldn't change it i don't think.. all of my past has made me who i am today and it led me to this exact point in my life..
I value this moment. I do suffer from my past but I can't imagine where i'd be right now if things had been different..