I'm pretty sure that all of us has witnessed bullying, been part of a group of bullies, but never did much about it. We may have just been afraid of being bullied by the bully, or your afraid that if you didn't bully that person, you wouldn't be someone's friend. A lot of people know that bullying others is wrong, but most of them never do anything, never stand up for that person. They just watch or join in.
At my old school, bullying was very rare, but on certain occasions, it happened. Sometimes it was because the person acted a bit strange or looked weird.We were split into 3 groups: Popular, the Weird people, and the Average. I was in the Average group. The group that usually got bullied would be the weird group. So, there was this girl who sucked her thumb, even though we were already in 3rd grade (Let's call her Mary). Everyone avoided her because her fingers were always wet with saliva, and it grossed a lot of people out, including me. We were friends though, but whenever someone called her "Thumb-Sucker" I would always watch and not do anything. When someone had to do a partner project with her, they would always say, " Go use the hand sanitizer first!" in a very mean way. When Mary was sucking her thumb and touched someone or something, they would go running, screaming at the top of their lungs, "Don't touch Gabby, she's got Mary Germs!" or, "OMG, it's the Thumb-Sucker!"
Every time someone said that it looked as though she would burst into tears any second. I felt horrible, yet I did nothing. Once, I asked my friends, "Why are other people keep calling her names?" They shrugged and would reply, "I honestly don't know". Like me, they didn't call her names, was friends with Mary, but never did anything to help. Sometimes, during class, people would say the exact same thing about "germs" when Mary touched something. Sometimes the teacher stopped them, but most of the time, teachers weren't paying attention. Once, the teacher even had a chat about Mary sucking her thumb in front of the whole class, and Mary looked totally embarrassed at the end. Many people would go to great lengths to not touch whatever had "Mary germs". After a while, thankfully, they got tired of it and moved on. When they stopped, Mary stopped sucking her thumb as well(I think stress was why she sucked her thumb)! I know that she isn't being teased anymore, but I still regret not standing up for her when she really needed it. I didn't have the courage to. If that happened today, though, I would have been able to help!
Two goals I would have to make ISKL be a better place for everyone would be:
-I will stand up for the person being bullied
-I will never bully someone
Being bullied isn't fun. If you see someone being bullied, don't just stand and watch. If you've been bullied before, you know how they feel. Stand up for them! By doing that, we will be making ISKL a better place to learn and play.
Graphic Image From: http://bbmspta.org/ESW/Images/BullyFreeTR.gif
Many people think that courage is when you help someone in distress, do something wonderful, something out of the ordinary, and people know you for it. Well, they're not wrong, but they're not exactly right either. Being courageous is also facing your own fear, something small, like a snake, for example. You could be afraid of snakes and people might think you're a wimp, but when you overcome your fear, you're still being courageous, just in your own way. Another way of being courageous is standing up for others. If one is being bullied, you can stand up for them and help them, and eventually become one of their friends. If you know you're going to get teased for standing up for yourself or others, yet you still do it, that's also being courageous.
There was a time when I was courageous, too, in my own way. It was at back at my old school, I was in 2nd grade, and there was this girl (Let's call her Amy, so we know who we're talking about) who my classmates thought was weird. They shunned and ridiculed her. I really wanted to be friends with her because she seemed nice and fun to hang out with, but I was afraid of being teased by my other friends.
They all said that she was a little bit mean and bossy, but they didn't personally know her.
I thought about asking her to hang out with me several times over the next few weeks, but I didn't want to be teased about only playing with someone. At the time, I thought it was ridiculous to be teased just because you hang out with someone other people shunned. I still think it's ridiculous, and people still say stuff about you if you hang out with a person that a lot of people don't like. Amy looked really miserable, as if she knew that she was the topic of the conversations whispered among her classmates. I immediately felt guilty. I had been thinking about being friends for weeks while she had weeks of being lonely, sad, and feeling totally unwanted. I knew how that felt, and I decided that I was going to try to be friends with her at recess.
That recess, I asked if she wanted to walk with me. She said yes. I was really nervous and I kept fidgeting. I guess that she was freaked out, too, because she didn't seem to sense my discomfort. There were kids running all over the playground yelling at the top of their lungs. There was an awkward silent as we walked toward the track. Then she asked, " Do you play a website called Poptropica?" "Yes, I do!" I replied. We started talking about how to complete different places (If you play Poptropica, you might know what I'm talking about, if not, it's www.poptropica.com) and eventually, talked about our lives. It turns out that we had a lot in common. It turns out a lot of people do. Later, we started to hang out everyday, and I introduced her to my friends. We stayed friends over the last few years, but then she had to move. Even though we're miles apart, we still keep in touch!
That day, the first time I talked to Amy properly, made me feel good. I felt that I had done something right, something that made a person's life better. I didn't feel courageous that day, and didn't even think myself of being courageous, until my friend told me, the day before she moved. In fact, to this day, I couldn't believe I had the courage to go up to her and ask her to take a walk. That day, I faced two of my fears, helping someone who everyone doesn't like and making a new friend. Now, I don't listen to everything my friends say about other people. I try to find out myself, and if my friends are wrong, I tell them.
I overcame my fears that day by helping someone even though I was afraid of getting teased and making a new friend. That was a time when I showed courage.
