Words carry out a variety of functions in our world. They give meaning to objects and describe those objects, they bring about a story or information, and they can be used for and against people. People always assume that bullying must constitute some violent act against another person when it can also be verbal assault and harassment.

We don't think about the power of our words usually until after we have used them. When one girl calls another girl fat or ugly, those words hold negative power and may have a consequence. That girl might already be struggling with self-esteem issues and now feels even worse about herself. The same goes for that group of people who always refer to gay people as queers. Queer has a negative connotation for some people and by using it in a negative way you are saying it's not okay to have a different sexuality then the norm.

Other times, we don't think before we say something. This leads to people misconstruing the meaning of words or even twisting your words to mean something else. If a sentence or a paragraph is not worded a certain way, it can have different meanings for different people. If we are not specific about what and who we are talking about we can offend someone with our words.

In the same sense, words can also have a positive impact. There are just certain sentences from certain speeches given by certain people that everyone knows because they are so impactful.

For instance Babe Ruth said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." These words can inspire not only baseball players but anyone reading them. He simply means that any failure or mistake you make can bring you closer to your end goal. These and other means inspire those of us that read them to do great things.

The moral of the story here is this, words are powerful. We shouldn't use words against people but instead use them to lift up the spirits of those around us and change the world. What we say and do has an impact on others and we should strive to make that impact a positive one.