"Frog eyes." “You have such a big nose." “She’s so ugly, who would ever want to be friends with her?” Fat. A lot of people think bullying ends in high school. After all, you no longer have to be associated with the people you’ve gone to school with for thirteen years. You are given the choice of what you want to do with the rest of your life. College, work, take a gap year; the possibilities are endless and the choice is finally up to you. But bullying doesn’t end there.
Unfortunately, not everyone is going to be nice. And you are not going to get along with everyone. Bullying, in a sense, can follow you. If not in person, online. Cyberbullying is very real, and it has caused people to go through the worst circumstances, all because mean people behind a screen have nothing better to do with their time than hurt people who they may not even know. What they achieve from that is impossible to tell.
As a college student who goes to a fairly large school, currently made up of more than 67,000 students, it may seem difficult to get targeted. But at times, college can feel exactly like high school. The cliques, the gossip, if anything, it becomes more pronounced in college. Because colleges have such large populations, the cliques multiply and so does the gossip. You’d think that as people get older, they would learn just how severe their words and actions can be, but some just don’t. People publicly and privately humiliate others for a quick laugh, or they degrade others just to be liked by the college crowd.
Group chats are another example of where you can see bullying occur. Even amongst a tight knit group of people, it can be difficult to come to the defense of the victim, in fear of not getting accepted by the rest of the group. Bullying damages so much, primarily damaging the victims' self worth. And once your self worth is damaged, it is so difficult to build it back up.
People affected by bullying are broken down over sexuality, mental diseases, personal experiences, and physical appearances. Suddenly, opinions and comments made about them speak volumes that cannot be silenced. There is no justification for bullying, absolutely none. But unfortunately, not much is being done in colleges to prevent bullying. And the sad part is, bullying is becoming a problem larger than we can handle. Instead of breaking people down, we should be supporting them. And even though a majority of us don’t like to watch someone get bullied, very few people actually say something. Why is that? Why do people feel that if they ignore the problem, it will just go away? Because that is not the case. In fact, if we actually say something, there are higher chances of the situation getting diffused.
So, do just that. Next time you see someone getting bullied, say something. It only takes one voice to stop a bully, so stand up for what you believe in. Everyone deserves to live life without getting bullied.
