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Woman reconnects with her high school bully and finds out people aren't always who they once seemed

Almost everyone has been bullied. Not even gets to have a surprising reunion.

girl in blue sleeveless dress

Bullies. So many of us had them. Whether it was the subtle "Mean Girls" digs or full-on being shoved into a locker, there was usually that ONE (or three) person in your younger years who made your stomach drop the moment you saw them. They seemed to live to make your life miserable, and all too often, they succeeded.


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A woman took to Reddit and asked, "Who got bullied in school/college? Where are your bullies now?"

Great question. As someone who Insta-stalks every single crush I've had since kindergarten, it never occurred to me to look up the people who hadn’t always been so pleasant.

After the OP posed the question, she told her own story. "There was a group of girls, particularly one girl who'd pick on me. Basically, her boyfriend had broken up with her because he had started to like me. So yeah, she'd bully me a lot, and I never had a good relationship with her in school."

But things took a surprising turn somewhat recently! She adds, "…until a year ago, our best friends from school basically cheated on us with each other. (I don't have a better way to explain this, but yeah, we both got abandoned by our best friends.) This left us dealing with a lot of mental issues. During this time, we both connected with each other online and became each other's emotional support."

It gets even better. "She apologized to me for everything she'd done, and I genuinely forgave her. We've become really, really close now, and it makes me happy to think that things turned out this way."

Many Reddit users chimed in to tell their own tales of bullying and updates on their whereabouts. Said bullies' lives reportedly ranged from fabulous and successful (one runs a Fortune 500 company) to not-so-great and possibly current cult members. One person adds a funny observation about hypocrisy: "A lot of them are now 'life coaches' and 'influencers' who talk about loving yourself and being kind. F-ing irony."

woman in pink tank top and blue denim jeans sitting on yellow chair Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash

Instead of befriending their bullies, many on the thread have learned to take their power back by simply ignoring them. One shares, "I get repeated follow requests on Instagram from one of them. He passively stalks me. Two years ago, he DM'd me, and I just saw it and screenshot it. Later, he would proceed to like my Instagram stories and photos, and as usual, I kept ignoring him. LMAO."

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She says it didn't even occur to her that this was some sort of victory: "I was so much into my own world that it took me a while to realize how some people can perceive this as a victorious/ 'revenge' moment."

And lastly, there's the perspective that comes with age. A Redditor shares that after attending her 25th high school reunion, she saw this group for what they really were:
"It was glaringly obvious. Once they ascertained my station in life, they grudgingly offered some polite greetings, but they couldn't hide their disdain on their faces. From time to time, they checked if they could get away with laughing at something about me. When they couldn't get any reaction, they looked disappointed."

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YouTube

It kind of goes without saying that we could all use a reunion right now. And this video is a testament to the profoundly beautiful experiences that can happen when people are reunited after long absences. It's also a testament to the idea of never giving up hope. After all, these Korean families were separated by 30 years after the horrific civil war that led to the creation of North and South Korea. An estimated 2-3 million Korean civilians died in the conflict, more than World War II and Vietnam. And with technology then not being what it is now, thousands of family members were separated during and after the conflict, often with no way of finding out if their loved ones had survived.

So, in June 1983, Korean broadcast station KBS News broadcast a special to help reunite displaced family members. It was reportedly the first time a television program had been used to reunite families separated by a war. The entire program was meant to go on for about 45 minutes. But after an incredible outpouring of Korean seeking help finding their relatives, it ended up lasting for 138 days and a total of 453 hours.. And as this short video shows, it might just be one of the most powerful moments in television history.



Parents reunited with children, brothers and sister seeing each other for the first time in decades, it's incredibly powerful to put it lightly. So much time had passed that participants were required to state a number of facts to confirm their identities and relations. But sometimes none of that was necessary. In one exchange, the network says: "We have a woman who says she's your mother. Seen on a split screen, the younger man response emotionally: "That's her. I would never forget my mother's face."

The mother's first words? "You must have suffered a long time." Her son: "For so long." Then, the two burst into tears and are reunited.

Like we said, incredibly powerful stuff.

So much so that over 100,000 Koreans signed up to participate as the show carried on for 138 days, more than one-third of an entire year, in a non-stop marathon of reunion efforts.

Even then-President Ronald Reagan weighed in, saying: "I've heard about the program that uses television to reunite families that have been torn apart. Today, I urge North Korea it is time to take part in this TV reunification program."

Ultimately, 10,189 families were reunited. You can watch a short highlight of some of the reunions below:


This news broadcast reunited 10,189 families separated by warwww.youtube.com

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This group found a simple way to get messages from homeless people to their families.

'I never realized I was homeless when I lost my home but only when I lost my family and friends to support me.'

Kevin Adler's uncle, Mark, was always a very family-oriented person.

He remembered everyone's birthday and gave thoughtful gifts. One year, he gave Kevin an eagle bandana because Adler means "eagle" in German.

Mark also had mental health problems throughout his life. He was schizophrenic and often in and out of homelessness.


Mark Adler. Photo via Kevin Adler/Miracle Messages, used with permission.

10 years after his death, Kevin and his father visited Mark's gravesite. It was Kevin's first time doing so. In fact, he didn't even known his uncle had one. Mark was estranged, but the family felt it was important "that he not be forgotten," as Kevin's father put it.

This got Kevin thinking about all the people without homes in the world (over 100 million according to the last attempted global survey) who either have a mental illness or are simply down on their luck and are disconnected from their families. Then, he thought about how easily he and his friends and family connect via social media — a power few homeless people are probably able to harness.

It wasn't until Kevin launched an art project for his church, however, that he found a way to change this.  

He wanted to show his fellow churchgoers what it was like to see the world through a homeless person's eyes.

Photo via Kevin Adler/Miracle Messages, used with permission.

It was called Homeless GoPro and involved homeless volunteers wearing GoPros to show what a day in their lives looked like.

While working with them, Kevin kept hearing iterations of this sentiment: ​"I never realized I was homeless when I lost my home but only when I lost my family and friends to support me."

That's when he realized he could do a great deal more for them using the same camera and his Facebook account. He could record their stories and send them out on social media to help try and find their families.

He would end up calling the project Miracle Messages.

“That’s my daughter. I love her. And for Father’s Day she actually gave me a foot imprint. But I have a good friend who...

Posted by Miracle Messages on Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Kevin decided to test out his idea in San Francisco around Christmas in 2014.

He walked down Market Street and asked every homeless person he came across if they'd like to leave a holiday video message for a loved one.

That's when he met Jeffrey.

Kevin with Jeffrey on Market Street. Photo via Kevin Adler/Miracle Messages, used with permission.

"I started talking to him," said Kevin. "He was a little bit out of it, but once I asked him about his family, he got incredibly lucid. He looked me right in the eye and said, 'I haven’t seen my family in a long time.'"

It had been 22 years.

Kevin asked him if he'd like to record a video message for his sister and father (the family Jeffrey remembered) that Kevin would then use to try and locate them. He said "yes," and Kevin obliged.

That night, Kevin went on an internet search for Jeffrey's family. He found a group on Facebook associated with Jeffrey's hometown in Pennsylvania and sent them a message asking if they wouldn't mind sharing the video. They agreed, and within minutes, comments from locals started pouring in. After 20 minutes, his sister was tagged.  

On Christmas Eve, Kevin got on the phone with Jeffrey's sister and learned that Jeffrey had actually been a missing person for 12 years. Three weeks later, Jeffrey's hometown ended up raising $5,000 to bring him home and rehabilitate him.

The reconciliation felt too good to be true. Kevin was able to change Jeffrey's life with his simple idea.

Eager to help more people, Kevin took his messaging service to St. Anthony's Foundation in downtown San Francisco.

Johnny at St. Anthony's in San Francisco. Photo via Miracle Messages, used with permission.

St. Anthony's has been serving food to the homeless since 1950. At first it seemed like no one was interested, but then, just as he was leaving, one man named Johnny took him up on his request to record a message.

He hadn't seen his family in 33 years and had been listed as missing person for 20. Kevin followed the same procedure he had enacted in Jeffrey's case, and within three weeks, all four of Johnny's brothers and sisters got on a plane to San Francisco with their families and reunited with Johnny in person.

According to Kevin, while he was in the hotel room with them all, Johnny looked at him and said, "Thank you for giving me my family back."

Out of the 45 video messages sent by volunteers at Miracle Messages, there have been nearly 20 reunions.

Perry's reunion with his son, Joseph. Image via Miracle Messages/YouTube.

Eight of those 20 have led to stable housing.

But the organization has much bigger plans.

Their goal is to reunite 1% of the world’s homeless population — that’s over 1 million people — by 2021. That may seem lofty, but considering how much they've already accomplished, it's not impossible.

Over 5,000 people have already reached out wanting to start chapters of Miracle Messages in their own communities.

There are still a few kinks to work out, like having a clear model for how to get consent, record, and upload videos to the proper channels, but people are motivated. These reunions are making so many lives better, homeless and non-homeless alike. The more people who can be brought back to their families, the more people will find their way home.

If you'd like to help this volunteer-based organization, you can donate to their site and learn more about volunteering here.

Norwood Thomas is a 93-year-old veteran who fought in World War II. During the war, he met a girl.

Shortly before parachuting into Normandy with the 101st Airborne, Thomas met Joyce Durant along the River Thames.

She was "a pretty little thing," Thomas recalled to The Virginian-Pilot.


Joyce Durant. Photo via The Daily Share/YouTube.

Thomas and Durant fell in love. To this day, he remembers her laugh and can even recite her old mailing address from memory — it was the address to which he sent letters and gifts shortly after the war.

Thomas would have married her, he says. But fate had other plans.

Before long, time, distance, and the war drove them apart. Thomas moved to North Carolina and got married to "a good woman," he recalls, "who helped my mixed-up head get straight."

Norwood Thomas as a soldier in World War II. Photo via The Daily Share/YouTube.

But ... he always thought about the one that got away.

Joyce, it turned out, hadn't stopped thinking about him either.

She, like Thomas, got married after they lost touch. She goes by Joyce Morris now and lives in Australia. One day, while her son was fixing her computer, she asked if it was possible to "find people on that thing."

After 70 years apart, it only took a couple of Google searches for the war-time lovebirds to be reunited over Skype.

Photo via The Daily Share/YouTube.

Morris told Thomas that she still has a picture of him that she says "good morning" to every day.

"Just remember," Thomas replied, "that I will say 'good morning' back to you."

The power of technology to bring people together is truly amazing.

As their story quickly spread around the Internet, people have raised over $7,000 in donations to fund an in-person reunion for the couple.

Photo via The Daily Share/YouTube.

Stories like this are a reminder of just how far technology can evolve in a lifetime. It wasn't that long ago that if you lost touch with someone, it was unlikely you'd ever hear from them again — especially if they lived on a different continent.

Thanks to the power of the information age and the donations of over 300 strangers, one of the most romantic reunions of the century is about to take place.

Air New Zealand also stepped up to send Thomas and his son to Australia, where he and Joyce Morris will spend Valentine's Day together.

What's that? No, I'm not crying. I just have something in my eye. Eyes. Both eyes.