I grew up in the early 70’s and was blessed with crossed eyes. My entire day from the moment my Mom walked me to the bus stop to the time I got home was being made fun of and harassed. It finally ended in high school when a the eye surgeon was able to straighten them out. I also grew and was one of the biggest kids in class. There were times that I wanted to seek revenge on the kids who taunted me , but I let it go. My revenge was to out perform them, go to college and marry a great looking woman, all of which I did. Its a horrible way to grow up but looking back I think it gave me a tremendous work ethic, empathy for people and drive.
If you read my posts, you can see you and I very likely are in total agreement on the end result, though perhaps not on the intermediate steps. You and I both feel we could make lemonade out of of the lemons of bullying.