Bullying is an epidemic in America that is affecting the lives of more and more kids and teens by the day. Sometimes bullying affects a person to the point where they take their own lives to escape the pain that they feel. I personally have never been a victim of bullying, but hearing stories about other kids like myself who have been a victim, puts me in their shoes. And that is a position I can never imagine myself being in. One story of a victim of bullying really touched me, the story of Jamey Rodemeyer. Jamey was being cyber bullied by anonymous people who would call him derogatory names and encourage him to commit suicide, because he was gay. Jamey suffered through this for 12 months until it all became too much for him to handle.
It is a shame that we have bullies in this world, but let’s look at reality; they are out there. But it is crucial that we spread awareness on bullying and let victims of bullying know that it does get better. There are so many people in the world to spread awareness to and get stories out and voices heard. So many organizations, support groups, and counselors to get help from. And there are so many elected officials around the world to contact to help make a difference. Bullying can be stopped and it can be illegalized as a hate crime. But it all starts with us, the youth of the world. It starts with us doing things as simple as standing up to a bully. After all, they are just like us. Kids. It starts with us supporting each other, not leaving one another in the dark. Any of these things and more can create an impact on someone’s life that is bigger than we think.
In conclusion I want to leave off with another story. This story really made me look at bullying from a different perspective. An elementary school teacher in New York gave her students an activity to perform about bullying. She gave the children a piece of paper and told them to crumble it up, stamp on it, and mess it up. Then she told them to unfold the paper, smooth it out, and look at how scarred the paper was. She told them to apologize to the paper. After they did this she pointed out the fact that as many times as they said they were sorry and as much as they tried to smooth out the paper, the scars were still there. And the scars will never go away; they will be visible on the paper forever. This exercise was a physical metaphor to show the students that bullying affects a person forever; they will never be the same again. One simple action of awareness can spark a revolution of our generation. But it starts with you, it starts with us.