J.R.: School taught me how to cry and how to run really fast

“I have learned how to cry silently in a bathroom, and how to run really fast.” These are the sad words from an unfortunate girl. We live in a society where an outstanding number of teenagers take advantage of this right we call “education”. School can be ill-mannered, and the way you are treated can be based on external features. In Emily’s case, she’s been called a slut, whore, fat, ugly and even a bitch. However, I highly doubt that she has any of those qualities. I, as a student find this heart breaking to read the thoughts of another individual. To hear their pain, their misery and how they view life. It hurts even more to know it happens at my school too.

At one point of my life, and I think for most people too, we’d call people who reported on their peers “snitches”. Today, I have a whole new perspective on what it means to report to an adult. No one can understand another person’s feelings perfectly, but they can have a good idea about how they feel. If you see someone being hurt, whether it’s physically or mentally, wouldn’t you want to stop the abuse? Most of the time a lot of people are being picked on for no reason, and if there is a reason, it’s usually smaller than the later outcome of the whole conflict. Maybe if someone would have just “snitched” on whoever was bullying Emily everything would have been better. Emily was being abused because she was hated, but to fight against the haters they must fear something. That something they fear is a “snitch”, who I like to call a responsible and caring person.

Emily looks at her life as a fight, segregated by rounds. She lives her life being defeated, round after round. She feels as if she has lost the fight, Emily quotes, “They broke me down, I had no backbone, no will to succeed, no will to even get up in the morning.” Emily has been defeated in life so many times that she doesn’t even have the will to fight back, and even when she moved to another school, she says, “A few people from my old school showed up at my new school the next year. So my problems multiplied.” Having the ability to run away from your problems is great, which is what she did, however she’s been tailed from former haters of her old school. What I think about this is that people should be more open and warm hearted out there. It’s not rocket science to see that the girl is upset, it’s pretty obvious. She was in an helpless position, the only help she could get was from someone else, so why didn’t anyone help her? Are the teachers blind? If I was a teacher and I’ve seen a student constantly being depressed every class, I would ask what’s wrong and advise the child to go to the guidance office. School is a bond of brotherhood and sisterhood, but it can also be the nest of your enemies. Most of the time you have a friend that will stand up for you when threatened by an enemy, but in Emily’s case, no one stood up for her. In fact, more of her friends left her not knowing whether to believe her or not.