I’m trying to write this as tactfully as possible. I would like to be sensitive but still be able to express the emotions I’m feeling to the necessary extent. I’m confidently certain, I might not be agreed with by many and the overall message I’m trying to convey might not be received well. A recent string of tragedies have lit up the news cycle. My heart breaks for the friends and families of these four individuals and, to a certain extent, I acknowledge the need to address the epidemic that has become bullying in our country.
I’m upset. I’m upset with the shallow, close-minded, and immature bullies out there who made these teens feel like sub-human, outcasts who were put on this Earth to be their emotional punching bags. I’m upset that our society still likes to imbue this innate idea in every generation’s mind that being gay (or different in any way) is justification for ostracism. However, more than just about anything else, I’m upset with the victims who took such drastic, selfish, and insane measures.
Suicide is probably the worst thing that a person could do. It’s worse than bullying. Sure, you’re not getting your jollies whittling down the self-esteem of your peers, but you’re tearing apart your family and friends while depriving yourself of a future worth so much more than a period of unnecessarily cruel growing pains. Everyone gets bullied, and on a much more relevant level, every single person goes through extremely emotional and tragic events in their lives. Believe me, I wouldn’t be here writing this if I let every comment on the playground about my race and/or sexual orientation drive me to suicide. I wouldn’t have made it to the 7th grade actually. But my adolescent emotional trauma aside, if you can survive your teenage years, it only gets worse…
That’s right. Life is hard. A lot of the time, life just plain sucks. Pick up a newspaper. People all over the nation are either unemployed or underemployed and trying to scrape by with families with the bare essentials in order to survive this horrible economic climate. Countless others’ lives have become a literal battle against cancer, and not all of them win this battle. But they fought it all they could and didn’t give up. I have personally felt the loss of this horrible disease, and it they were and occasionally are the worst months, days, and moments of my life. Whether it is a car accident, a terminal illness, or at the hands of a deranged murderer, too many people get their lives taken from them by no fault of their own. But, these people didn’t throw in the towel and end their lives on their own selfish terms.
So, if there is anyone out there who is debating on whether or not they should take their own life please find a resource, talk to someone, count all the blessings you do have in your life, and, I can’t stress this enough, toughen up! There are more resources, advocates, and support groups out there. You don’t have to feel invisible, isolated, and hopeless. And if none of those things work out for you, by all means do it now while the stakes aren’t as high, because you clearly aren’t ready for the s***-storm that can and will be ‘life.’ And that life doesn’t care if you can handle unemployment, cancer, a death of a loved one, or any other tragedy, it will just happen.
I’m not sure what this will accomplish other than a good outlet for my frustration… But, if I could offer any advice on dealing with a bullying, it would be “don’t get even, get better.” I am 100%, verifiably, without a doubt in my mind, confidently sure that I am BETTER than any and every low-brow, low-rent, low-life that thought I defined my self-worth by what he or she thought of me.
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