School is hard, College is hard... life in general is extremely hard.

We're told from a young age that it's good to be different. Do not get me wrong it is great, but being different sometimes it is not so good for your self-esteem. As a kid and as an adult, I have always been different; in size and in color. It was hard because I did not look like everyone else or act like them.

I was bullied constantly and it was extremely sad, because the people who did it were people I have known for a while. I am an African American girl who was not born in the "hood" or "ghetto" as some black people like to call it. I'm a southern girl, born and raised in the country. I did not talk like them or act like them, and to be honest I did not know then I should not have cared.

I've known plenty of people in my 19 years of life who have been in the same situation(s) as I have. As sad as it sounds, we actually bonded over our stories. It angers me that we have stories to even bond over.

Individuals, male and female, die every day because of other peoples insecurities. People only bully others because they are insecure themselves.

I was bullied from the fifth grade, until I graduated high school by many different people, for many different reasons.

I know other people who have been through, and are still going through, this -- and for those who are reading this and have been through or are going through it, my heart goes out to you.

I'm proud of you for sticking through, and I hope you have people who support you. I hope you are not like many others who have ended their lives because people cannot seem to leave them alone.

People will forever try to put you down, but you cannot let them. You can no longer care what they want or who they want you to be because, at the end of the day, the only person who should be worried about you is you.

This topic will always be near and dear to my heart, because of this issue in society I gave up a passion I really truly loved. I say this to say: do not let other people change who you are, because as Bruno Mars says, "You're amazing -- just the way you are."