I'd like to
take a moment and talk about something that's been really bothering me the past
few days.
Bullying.
As many
already know, Amanda Todd took her own life a few days ago. She was a girl who
after making a mistake, ended up with years of stalking, bullying, and
harassment. She posted a Youtube video a month before her death that spoke of
her problems and how they affected her.
It would be
an understatement to say that being a teenager is hard. Being a teenager in
today's day is even harder. I was bullied as a teen. But I can honestly say,
things are worse now. Back in my day, there were no cell phones, internet,
etc. When a kid wanted to be mean to
you, they had to do it to your face.
Today, kids can bully and torment without even having to say who they
are. The anonymity of the internet has given them a chance to behave much worse.
They now have a doorway to where there
are no actions for their consequences.
But of
course that's not true.
Amanda
showed us that there are consequences.
What makes
a teenage girl believe that there are no other options than death?
Amanda made
a mistake when she was 14. Guess what? I made a mistake too. When I was 17, I
drunkenly allowed a boy to take advantage of me at a drive in. I didn't know
it, but people saw everything. Now I'm going to say I'm thankful that there
were no cell phone cameras in my day and age because I can only imagine how
much worse things could have been for me.
People make
mistakes.
But no one
deserves the kind of harassment this girl received for making a bad judgment
call. This girl did not deserve to be a
victim.
I had
actually met Amanda. She was in competitive swimming with my second cousin. She
was a polite, friendly, intelligent, and pretty teenager. But as we know, being all those things doesn't
mean that they can't have problems. It annoys me now when I see people making
comments like 'But she was so beautiful'. There seems to be this misconception
that being beautiful means you can't have any problems. Being beautiful should
solve everything. Guess what? It doesn't work that way.
To the
teenagers that worked so hard to make her life the living hell it was. You
should be ashamed of yourself. You should sit in your bedrooms and think about
how lucky you are that it's not you. Read the comments written online. Understand that life can change in a
heartbeat and that you can be bullied yourself. The odds are good that you
probably are.
And to the
people who are making comments about how no one cared about Amanda until she
was dead. Guess what? People did care for her. She had a mother who loved her
(and still does) very much. She had a father. She had a family.
And don't
go blaming the parents either. Sadly, parents only know as much as their
teenagers are willing to tell them. They are not mind readers. And sometimes,
even the most careful parents still find out the hard way that they didn't have
a clue to everything that was going on in their teenagers life.
And last,
to the teens out there who are being bullied. You are not alone. Talk to
someone. If you can't talk to your parents, find someone online to talk to.
There are chatrooms set up to help teens cope with abuse. Talk to whoever is
willing to listen. Talk to your cat or dog. Talk to the wall. Just get the
words out of your head.
And
remember, you are not alone. It gets better.
