I just started reading Elon Musk’s book, and it really pained me to learn how he was bullied through his school years. The worst incident happened when he was sitting on a stairway, and some kid who decided he didn’t like him pushed him down the stairs and smashed his face repeatedly into the ground. Elon ended up needing to be hospitalized for over a week, and in the end, he required plastic surgery to repair his nose.

It’s hard for me to understand bullying of that severity, or the type of bullying that makes children scared of going to school. I was bullied for minor things like my then tall height, my name, and of course, being terrible at kickball in elementary school, but it was never to a point where I feared for my security or my life. What is so stunning is how people like Elon move forward in their lives in spite of these setbacks and horrible life experiences with other people; it’s inspiring, but at the same time it infuriates me that this type of treatment of others is condoned and tolerated in schools around the world. And it also reminds me of how my own brother was bullied and got to a point where he just didn’t want to go to school anymore. Unfortunately, Ed wasn’t as strong or persevering as Elon.