Choices

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” You’ve heard this quote at some point in your life. When I was in 6th grade I was the girl who was never afraid of talking to the boys. I remember all my friends had their little crushes on the boys in our grade. I also remember having a crush on this one boy, and I finally went up and asked him why he didn’t like me. “You’re annoying and not very cool,” was his words. They stung. After that I tried so hard to change, to be the popular girl and stay quiet, because of what this boy said to me.

All through middle school I would try so hard to sit at the “cool” lunch table. I always tried to hang out with the girls that all the boys liked. I also gave all the boys in my classes the homework, so they would like me. Then one day I realized I was not getting anywhere; I wasn’t making any friends. I wasn’t happy. So from that point on, I stuck to myself. I believe that you choose to let others hurt you.

When high school came it was the real testing point, to see if I could really stick to myself. I went through the usual girl drama, with name calling, and the accusations of who is with whom. I would never listen to it. When a girl would walk up to me and call me a bad name, I would just smile and say thank you. I realized after awhile that if they were saying those things about me then they were not important to me and I don’t need to listen to them. Over time, people quit saying those things to me because they realized it didn’t work. I just no longer cared what they said.

It’s a choice of ours to let people hurt us. Everyone comes across someone that says something mean to them. It’s a choice they make, whether to listen and let it affect them or to shrug it off and say it’s their opinion. That famous quote above may not be true, but it shows a choice that we can make.