Something that scares me is that all of us spend so much time exhaling hate and unjust dissatisfaction with one another instead of gratitude and compassion. It has become our norm to make fun of one another, or to go out of the way to make someone else have a harder time than we are. It can be through sending screenshots to someone who doesn't have any business seeing them, subtweeting, through personal attacks, or even sending around racy pictures of a girl who sent them to you (I mean, come on fellas, cut the crap). Far too often I have seen my peers, and sometimes myself, disrespecting someone else for the most minor of things, and we never think about the depth of the cut we are creating on that person.
The truth is, all of us have personal lives. We have much more to ourselves than what we make public on social media, how we act at parties, or what our enemies say of us. We laugh at people who look different than us: overweight, unattractive, people who smell, or talk funny. But when do we ever think deeper and think of the possibility that the person who talks funny was maybe in a car accident that affected their cognition and speech? Or that the boy who you tell smells has to wear the same shirt everyday because his childhood home was taken from his family in a fire? Or the person who is overweight who is only heavier than you because they suffer from diabetes that could eventually take their life or maybe, they don't have diabetes, and they have a combination of anxiety and depression that only eating helps them control. A lot of people suffer from these things and they cope in different ways. Do you think the person drinking every single day to cope with their stress would weigh as much as that 'overweight' person if they chose food instead of intoxication? Probably. Maybe the little boy that everyone makes fun of for crying easily is getting abused at home. No one knows that...but he does. There are so many things that we do not see, things we do not know, and things we will never know.
We don't know what goes through someone else's head when we are making fun of them. We don't think about the possibility of making someone go to bed crying because of something that we've done or said that we knew was wrong. Our parents taught us better. We've all been told "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Is it really worth it to go out of your way to tell someone else that they're "ugly?" You can be anyone you want on the internet, and for many, it is easier to speak unkindly to people than it is in person. Maybe that makes us feel more powerful and proud to have "no filter" or "no chill." It's very sad, the things we do to each other, the pure disrespect, the fighting.. we should be embarrassed. Maybe it's social media, because we base most of our opinions on someone we either don't know or barely know from what we see them tweet, their Snapchat stories and their Instagram photos. Maybe it's the lack of common decency that we can easily possess and/or repossess.
I'm sick of fighting. I'm tired of knowing people are hurting because of something one of us did. I'm sick of everyone trying to find out whose argument is the most valid based on irrelevant events that we only bring up to make someone else look bad. There really are people out there who live gracefully and would do anything to make someone else feel good. I'd like to think that we can all be one of them, because although our decisions have not always been in the best interest of those around us, they can be. We are getting too old to be selfish, too old to worry about how someone else wants to live their life. We don't think deeper than what is in front of us, and that ruins everything. Maybe, just maybe, the next time you say something to hurt someone else, you will think about the lack of character that you are showing in yourself. Not everything deserves a reaction, not every indirect tweet deserves your attention, and not every person is as strong as they act on the internet. The change begins within you. Think before you speak, think of the things you don't know; the possibility of your words and actions being the straw that broke the camels back.
We have and will continue to evolve into mean people with the way we interact with one another. It is not worth it to be hurtful to someone else, it is not good for the soul, and it is not good for the children that we set an example for. You shouldn't convince yourself that having no heart is the best way to not be hurt, because that is not true. Having a good heart and not using it is unfortunate. Too many lives have been taken because of unkind words, and when we are the ones saying them, they are truly just 'words' to us, but they are more than that to someone else. Suicide prevention can be aided with the help of us thinking before we do or say something that will hurt someone else.
I pray that with the holidays coming up, especially, we can have compassion for one another and be grateful for the things that we are blessed with. If it was possible, everyone would want to be "normal," but our normal is becoming pure evil. We need to love more.
Stop the bully within yourself and you can make a difference.
