It only takes one. One minute, one sentence, one person to ruin everything. Despite that little saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” words do more damage than you may think. There is more power behind the words that you throw out of your mouth, and I beg that you watch what you say and who you say them around. The little ears that are a couple of tables down from you and your friends hear everything you say and the girl sitting at the bus station sees what you say on Twitter.

These days, it is common for people to throw around words without realizing the effect that they will have on other people whether they hear those words first hand or through the grape vine. You may not think words hurt, but they do. They are the weapon you carry around all of the time without noticing. Each word that comes out of your mouth has meaning and most people forget that. They say what they feel or they say something to make other people feel and that my friends, is amazing, but the power of words is something we all underestimate.

Most recently, the way I saw myself had changed drastically. I was finally OK with the way I looked and embraced every little fault I had. It was this new feeling that I loved. I didn’t beat myself up for missing a workout or eating too many chips and queso at dinner with my friends. I had finally freed myself from the restraints of trying to achieve this “perfect” body image that I had in my head for the longest time. I was finally my own perfect, but it only took ten seconds for somebody to ruin that. Ten seconds, one Snapchat video, one voice, that’s all. The words that came out of somebody’s mouth ruined the months and years of hard work that I had put in to make myself okay with me.

To this day I still hear those words in my head every single time I go to eat another chip or get seconds after a really good dinner. The words that were spoken did more damage than they will ever know. They brought back the self-conscious person who didn’t care if she missed a couple of meals or when she did eat she would excuse herself to get rid of everything she ate. Those words brought back the endless tears, self-hate and disgust, and the thoughts that somebody like me could never be loved because of the way I looked. Those words changed me, and not for the better.

People don’t listen that what they are saying or pay attention to who they are saying them to. You never know what the person is struggling with and you just want to poke fun at somebody to have a good laugh. Remember that little girl sitting a couple of tables down from you and your friend at lunch? She heard you calling some girl fat and ugly because you didn’t like her, so she is going to use those words against the girls she doesn’t like at school. Remember that tweet where you said that Kim should go get her cellulite fixed because it didn’t look cute on her, the girl at the bus stop read that. She struggles with the same issue and now feels like she isn’t cute enough.

In society, it has become the social norm to use words to make yourself feel better about something so remedial. You don’t think that words can do anything to anybody and that they have no effect, but they do. What do you think a lawyer is doing during their closing statements? They are using their words to make you feel something. Words are such a beautiful gift that we have been given, but we misuse them on an everyday basis.

Words are meant to encourage and uplift somebody, not bring them down. YOU are meant to encourage and uplift somebody, not bring them down. Next time you want to say how you think somebody is big, ugly, needs to get work done, why don’t you think about how you would feel if somebody said that about you? Wouldn’t feel too good about yourself then would you? There are young men and women out there struggling to be okay with who they are and if all they see is other men and women tearing people down, life as we know it will be forever changed.