I got picked on a lot. People called me "monster," they called me "harelip," they told me to "keep my mouth shut until I got my teeth put in," they made fun of my sensory issues at every turn, and then they punished me for making a stand for myself. And the adults were too cowardly to even scratch the surface of what I had to deal with day after day, so they told me to "get over it" and "ignore it."
This all had nothing but the exact opposite effect of what they intended.
I didn't become what they wanted me to be, either in body or in mind, for acceptance. Instead, I became stubbornly, relentlessly, vehemently determined to be myself no matter how much people hated me. I fought back, verbally and occasionally physically, with a vengeance, regardless of whether it was a peer, a teacher or a school administrator who was making my life difficult. I had nothing to lose, as they all hated and maybe feared me and mistreated me as a result, so I upped the ante on both, making them afraid or frustrated enough so they wouldn't bother anymore. I got in trouble a bunch for it, but I don't regret the worst of my incidents - in fact, if I knew I'd be punished as harshly as I was for it, I would've hit harder! - the most I regret is sometimes sinking down to their same level of pettiness and stupidity in how I insulted them back. If people hadn't wanted me to get to that point, they would've stopped it before I got that far. As it happened, though, they made their own "monster," and it acted only according to how they treated it.
Perhaps the best revenge, though, is that I'm still me, unapologetically, and going to succeed as myself in a field where I'll probably get to wipe the floor with bullies of various sorts, while these pathetic souls who made my life miserable to bring themselves up are probably still squabbling for acceptance and normalcy in order to continue living even the most inconsequential sort of life. I'll rise on the things that were considered flaws by those people who hurt or refused to help me, while they will sink or at very best float and no more on those things that made them able to fit in. It's gonna be awesome.