Dear Peers,

I am a student in Middle School and I’m writing this to every student that has bullied, made a rude comment, or has intentionally hurt someone’s feelings. I hope that by the end of this note you can finally understand the power of your words and actions and how they can affect the ones around you. My life hasn’t always been butterflies and rainbows. When 6th grade came around, I started to get bullied. When one person hated me they would tell everyone to hate me as well. I was always avoided and laughed at. Not to mention all the snotty comments and remarks. I was called fat, ugly, dumb, retarded, and a whole bunch of swear words. The bullying got so bad that one day I had to get stitches. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t do anything to hurt their feelings. But all of the bullying reminded me of my previous step mother and everything that I had tried so hard to forget about. I felt trapped at school and I just wanted to leave and never come back. I ended up getting depressed. I refused to eat, sleep, or even find the urge to get out of bed. I found myself doing everything I could, just to miss it least one day of school. I would try to break my bones and purposely hurt myself because every time I was at the doctor it was so much better than being at school. Every minute that I was away from the bullying was worth it. But on the days I had to go I would just cry. My past started to haunt me. Counseling didn’t seem to help and I started showing signs of PTSD. I refused to sleep and I felt like I was different than everyone else. I started stressing out about the investigation and the fact that I had to testify in court. At the same time, people from school started pushing me into walls, spreading rumors, cussing at me and so much more. I didn’t even know them. They’re weren’t even in my grade. I was just bullied for the smallest reason. The bully told all her friends to go along with it and before you know it, everyone starts hating me. They had no idea what I was going through at home and they didn’t seem to care. All they cared about was trying to break me inside and well, It worked. I wanted to tell my father about the bullying but I didn’t know how. You see, everyone at school just assumes that your life is normal and that everything is just A-okay. So they try to do everything they can to bring you down. But what they don’t know is that the smallest little comment, gets stacked miles high with everything else you have going on at home and those few petty words can be the straw that breaks it all. But I’m proud to say that I’m no longer depressed and I’m glad for the life that I was given, I hope that nobody at our school, has to ever go through anything like this and I want to share my story so that I can prevent any of this from happening again in the future. So if you’re reading this, know that people all around you are going through complete heck right now and they don’t need anyone making it worse. If anything, try making their life better. Maybe the smallest compliment could tear someone out of depression and change their life forever. So please help me stand up to bullying in our school and make a difference in people’s lives. Realize that words can make a big impact on someone’s life and whether it be a negative or positive impact, that’s up to you to decide. How do you want your words to affect others around you? -Your Fellow Peer