Bullying is a severe issue that is a huge concern to me. Personally, I was never seriously bullied. I have been told the occasional verbal hits such as “you’re weird” or “you’re ugly” every now and then, but I was taught to never let that bother me because I am neither of those. I am me, and nothing anyone can say or do will change that. I think bullying is a serious topic to talk about because it affects so many people all around the world. Kids who are bullied do not always know how to handle it. They need to know that if they are being bullied they should stand up for themselves and find an adult. No one should ever let anyone bring them down. It is unacceptable. Many kids that have been bullied let it get to them and they have changed their entire persona. Some kids start to go into a spiraling depression, and others may start to cut themselves or starve themselves. Kids have begun to starve themselves because bullies told them they were fat. For most people, they will go their entire life believing they are fat and that there is nothing they can do about it.
When I was in the 7th grade I had a teacher who tried to teach us about the effects of bullying. She had us pull out a piece of paper, she then told us to crumple the paper as much as we could. She told us to open the paper and say we’re sorry. She asked us if the paper went back to normal. She asked us to smooth out the paper as much as possible and then asked us if it was back at its original state. It wasn’t. When you’re being bullied it leaves a scar. For some, the scar is so deep that they become immersed in self-hatred. They literally can’t take it anymore and take their own life. I once knew a kid that was contemplating suicide because people were picking on him because he was gay. At the time, I never really knew him, but I stopped and said hello. I asked him if he wanted to sit with me and my friends at lunch because he looked lonely. Before I knew it, he became one of my closest friends. Several years later he told me that because I said hi and was nice to him he changed his mind about suicide.
If you see someone being bullied, I believe you should do your part to help them. You should grab an adult and tell them what is going on. To you it may not seem like much, but the smallest things can really help. If we make ourselves aware of bullying, together we can eliminate an issue that takes away brilliant futures for thousands of kids and invest in uplifting our generation to create positive change.