Thoughtful Thursdays - 1st Collab on BULLYING

Hello our awesome readers!

I’m That Dude, and I’m doing a collaboration post with Alyianna Baggins.
Alyianna: Hello! :)

For our first collaboration post, we decided to talk about a topic that everyone faces at one point in their life. It can come from many areas in a person’s life, whether it is at school, on the internet, or even at church. No matter where it is experienced, a person can never truly be ready for it.

Many years ago, when my voice was higher, and my legs shorter, I was at a sort of party. A few friends and I were all gathered in a circle, and having an awesome time! We were laughing and just being our crazy selves, when some random woman came by and said, “You laugh like a girl!”. At first, I thought nothing of it, but as time went on I thought more and more about how my laugh sounded. At that age, everyone sounds like a girl :P but I started noticing it a lot more. I started trying to “control” the pitch of my laugh, but all that achieved was a hollow, and fake laugh. And after all that time of trying to have a “normal” laugh, I’d forgotten how to laugh naturally. And being so critical of myself just took so much joy out of the times that I could have been free to be myself. I wish I hadn’t paid attention, and I wish I could have kept that healthy laugh, but now all I can do is make up for lost time. I’ve forgiven her, but I wish it hadn’t happened in the first place.

Even something as simple as defending what you believe in, or even what you like (a hobby, fandom, etc.), can hurt people. Something like this, I see on one of my favourite websites - YouTube - ALL the time. It’s not only the language that people use. When somebody says they don’t like a certain song or a certain artist on the video, then the people, who really like that artist can get really mad. I know this first hand. Today, I posted a comment on a YouTube video that I didn’t think was appropriate. I got over 400 hate comments in reply.

Sometimes you might wonder why bullies do what they do. At many times, people may say something hurtful without even meaning to. But, at other times, someone may do hurtful things because someone did something like that to them. Or they feel insecure, and when they put other people down, they think that they can feel better about themselves. It’s easy to want to hate a bully in your life, but you have to realize that they may be hurting inside too. Sometimes, all they need is someone to show kindness to them, and it can change them in so many ways. It is scary to do this, but it’s a truly amazing experience to be a part of turning that person’s life around. Maybe this won’t happen, and maybe the bully will still bother you, but it’s always good to try and make a difference in a world full of pain.

You may like to watch this trailer for a kid movie on bullying. The movie is quite good. :)