Bullying has become such a severe problem in our community and I refuse to remain a bystander.  Bullying has gotten to the point where people are ending their lives. Although people are usually bullying just to put down others to improve their feelings about themselves. Why would you want to bully someone to death? If not death, then severe injury from self-harm. Some bullying victims suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which means they suffer with trauma that has happened in the past that they can’t get over. Why bully others when you can just be friends? What benefit do you have to bully someone when you wouldn’t want others to bully you? I don’t understand why others get bullied because they’re “different” compared to someone else.

I myself, have been a victim of bullying. I have been bullied since kindergarten because I seemed “different” to others. It affected my sleep and my school work to the point where I had to enroll in homebound, where the teacher had to come to my house after school hours because I couldn’t handle the stress of school and the pressure of being bullied. I couldn’t concentrate and I spent days and weeks without sleep. I began to cut myself in the past from being bullied. I started cutting when I was in the sixth grade after being introduced by a friend who said it was a way to escape the world and the emotional pain with the physical pain. The progression of being bullied resulted in going to the hospital because I cut too deep. My friends that knew about it, made me promise that I wouldn’t ever do it again.

 

The summer of my ninth grade year in high school was the last time I cut myself. I still get bullied for “being different” but I have found different ways to cope with it. Hopefully all victims of bullying will come and stand up together as a whole family and know, that as a whole, we can stop this. We can STAND UP AGAINST BULLYING!

I have done some research throughout our school to find someone who has also been bullied and give me permission to share their story.

 

Cordell Holt has been bullied since the middle school because he was a cheerleader in the eighth grade. He says either the people who bullied him were jealous of his talent or thought that he was gay. Holt says the bullying made his life miserable. He says he has never partaken in self-harm over his bullying,  but it made him feel worthless,depressed, and sometimes cry.

 

Cordell describes the way the guys who bullied him would gossip about him. “It made me feel like a piece of crap, made me feel like I wasn’t good at what I do but at the same time, I felt like I was the best out there,” Cordell explains. He says his closest friends stood up for him during this time. Cordell is no longer being bullied and has overcome the experience.