I know I've been a bully

So many situations where I wish I said/did something differently with the campers. It takes time to learn how to talk to them, but I can't help but feel frustrated with myself. When I heard a girl say "I'm so fat. Don't look at me" and another girl say, "I have to wear this towel because my boobs are really uneven and it's really obvious," I felt frozen. I wanted to say something, but "you're not fat" or "you're beautiful" seem so trite.

Then I hear other kids say bullying and oppressive things. On the bus ride back from the water park, one kid refused to move over to let another kid with physical and mental disabilities sit next to him. He said he didn't want to sit next to a "drooling person." Then today, as we ate dishes of quickly melting ice cream, the loud little bully yelled at a kid with aspergers to "STOP TALKING ABOUT THE SIMPSONS!!" He 's constantly talking about the show.

Even though I try to break it up most of the time, I want to do more, say more. I hear some of my own thoughts in the kids meanness and I know I've been a bully at times, too. In the girls, I hear my own obsessions with my body. And how can I help them, when I'm struggling with the same feelings? Maybe I should try confiding that I've felt the same frustrations with other kids or insecurities, but that we need to be compassionate with ourselves and with others. Geez, I don't know.