It happens in movies. It happens in real life. All of us have three types of people: the people who support us no matter what, the people who are neutral and the people who try to bring us down in every single way. In short, we have supporters, bystanders and haters who come into each stage of our life.

In middle school and high school, we were so concerned about what other people thought of. We wanted to be popular. We wanted to be accepted by all of our classmates. During high school, we heard the saying from our parents that sticks and stones break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Well, we learned in high school that words do unfortunately hurt as well. Those lies, those rumors, the gossip, they all hurt us during that time. It was especially not cool to be in middle or high school and be the person that had all those extraordinary talents. Not only does that person create inspiration for others to follow, but that person becomes the target for those who are jealous of that individuals. Believe me, I was one of those people. Today, I still have many haters.

In middle school, I went to a private school with students in the upper socioeconomic status. I attended class with the kind of students who had maids and tutors working in their houses. These students had doctors, lawyers and owners of major businesses for parents. As a student from the working middle-class, I had to learn to clean up after myself. There was no maid or housekeeper present at my house to pick up after me. I had to learn how to study effectively and independently. I had no tutor. My father worked tirelessly for hours upon hours a week to pay for me and my sister to attend that private school. By being in a working middle-class family, I learned the importance of hard work and the rewards that came from hard work. I took honors classes, practiced my instrument for hours and participated in many extracurricular activities. My diligent work, my socioeconomic status, ethnicity and religion made me a target for those who could not see past their own box. I was constantly bullied and harassed. The bullying got so severe that they had to bring a police officer to my school to emphasize the seriousness that bullying presented.

In high school, I was a nerd, an oddball and really talented in music. People knew me because I was intelligent; I was the person to ask questions to when it came to academics. However, people knew me well because I could play my trumpet in a mature manner. I had those people who supported me, however, I had many haters.

I remember coming home many times in high school and crying for hours because those haters were saying so many hurtful phrases to me or gossiping constantly behind my back.

What I did not know during that time was that haters were going to hate for three reasons. Now I know those three reasons very very well.

First of all, your haters don't know how to respect themselves.

Before my senior year of high school, I did not know that how you treat yourself is a direct reflection of how you treat others. If you are saying mean things such as you’re ugly or you’re not worth it, then many times those phrases will be rubbed off from you to other people.

Secondly, your haters see you as a threat.

They see that your numerous talents and gifts make you special, unique and amazing. For a hater, anyone who is special and amazing is a threat. So how do they get rid of the threat? Well, haters use put-downs such as “you’ll never be successful in life” and “you can’t do that.”

But most of all, they want to be you.

Their self-esteem is so low that they want to be like “everyone else” or like “someone else.” Yeah, we have all of those people that we are inspired by, look up to or emulate, but a hater uses negative ways to hint that they want to be like you. If you are popular and have all the good friends, a hater would want that. You can play an instrumental and sound like a professional musician? They want a talent that can make them shine.

As teenagers and young adults in the real world, we need to learn to not care about what others think of us. We should only worry about ourselves and those whom we support and support us. If haters want to hate you, then that’s their problem. Never think that what a hater does to you is your fault. It is never your fault.

You want to know a secret of how to deal with your haters? The best revenge is to "kill them with kindness." Be so nice to everyone that people will find it difficult to believe your haters' hurtful statements about you. And always remember to prove them wrong. Your haters might say that you can’t do that, that's impossible or you'll never amount to anything in your life. It is your duty to respond to those statements with I can, I will and I did that.

What did I do to prove my haters in middle school and high school wrong? In middle school, I treated everyone with kindness and respect. Sometimes it was difficult to do. I went the extra mile. I was the only individual from my middle school to participate in Solo and Ensemble contest and All-Region Honor Band auditions. I became a member of National Junior Honor Society and graduated in the top 25 percent of my class in middle school.

In high school, I treated everyone with kindness and respect as well. I went the extra mile as well. I studied more diligently than anyone else would and took the honors classes that most students would not dare to take. I auditioned for every honor band that I was eligible for. I would practice my trumpet on weekends, holidays and breaks when most high school students would be “taking it easy.” When my high school principal announced how much financial aid I received from Texas Christian University, I could swear that the whole room was pretty awestruck. If my haters had no reason to hate me before, now they had a perfect reason to hate me now. If my haters had a reason to hate me before, they now had one more reason to hate me now.

For all of you in middle school, high school and college who are being put down by haters, you are not alone. You are loved, you are supported, you are amazing. No one can ever change that. Don’t let your haters put you down. Instead use their words as inspiration to lift you up. The "you can’t do that" can be changed to "I did that." Keep your head up and keep going even when the times are tough. There will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. I promise.