One-third of students from kindergarten through college state that they have been bullied at some point throughout their life.
Let that sink in for a minute. As of 2010, there were 120 million students in the U.S. That would mean that 40 million students have admitted to being bullied. This doesn't account for the bullying and harassment that continues throughout life, because it never truly stops.
"You're a salty c*nt."
"I could land a 747 on your forehead."
It's the jokes about your appearance that you used to get shouted to you across the classroom in high school, when you'd pretend to laugh along but look at the floor so they wouldn't catch your eyes tearing up.
"Jealous b*tch."
"You have a Jew nose."
It's the time you started writing a suicide letter after students from your school ganged up on you on social media for the sole purpose of making fun of you.
"Weird f*ck."
"You run like a freak, how do you even play sports?"
It's the little things you've done to your appearance to make parts of you less noticeable. Pulling your headband further down your forehead because someone called it big. Not wearing your hair up because someone made fun of how your ears stick out. Only buying jeans and leggings because someone called you "thunder thighs" when you were wearing shorts.
Then we sit here in awe and wonder why the beautiful, quiet girl who sat in the corner of class committed suicide.
Why you saw pink scars on your best friend's arm the time she pulled up her sweatshirt sleeve. Why the kid everyone made fun of for not being smart enough dropped out of school and became addicted to drugs.
Tell me, where does it end? How many parents have to lose a child before you realize your words have an impact? How many people are you going to drive into depression and self-harm because you just had to point out that one little flaw? How many beautiful people are going to starve themselves, spend hours on their makeup, cry themselves to sleep, and stare at the bottle of pills before we realize how badly we've screwed up?
Everyone's been the bully and the victim. But that shouldn't just be "how life is."
You shouldn't have to hear, "Just get over it."
"They're just words."
"Ignore it."
"Maybe if you didn't have social media, they wouldn't bother you."
When did being yourself suddenly become ostracizing yourself? When did being different start to automatically mean you're weird?
There's an Anne Frank quote that goes, "Dead people receive more flowers than the living because regret is stronger than gratitude."
Isn't that the truth? We glorify those who committed suicide, sit at their funerals and cry, talk about how amazing and beautiful and unique and perfect they were. But where the hell where you when others drove them into such a deep depression that they thought death was the only answer? Were you one of them?
The power of words is the greatest power on Earth. They can never be taken back. Why do we choose to use them so harshly?
The truth is, we have to lie in the bed we make. We have to deal with the school shootings because the bullied kid couldn't take it anymore. We have to watch 13 Reasons Why and cringe at the realities we've made. We have to accept the people who now struggle with mental illness because life has run them so ragged.
It won't change unless we do.
"Words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless."
- Mother Teresa