I'd heard stories about bullying for years, but it'd never affected me- so why should I worry? That was my mind set up until I was 14. I made a new great group of friends that year who changed my life and how I thought. I had friends who were constantly talking about what they'd heard someone say about them. Some nights I'd get calls or texts of someone upset because of rumors and gossip being spread. How could I have missed this going on for so long? Then I started hearing stories of people hurting themselves and some even killing themselves over what people had done or said to them. Soon after, a really good friend of mine told me that he was gay. As he told me stories of what people had said to him and done to him, I was just blown away. It'd all happened in front of my face, and I hadn't even noticed. The few times I did notice, I looked straight through it.

Then freshman year came. People can be so cruel. They cut you down with words. They tell you that something is wrong with you when you're actually perfect the way you are. But I was just getting destroyed by all of these people who thought they were so great and so much better than me. It was killing me inside. I felt so broken, but the only thing getting me through was knowing that I wasn't the only one. I let myself believe that if I wasn't alone being hurt, then maybe it was something that was just acceptable.

Sophomore year (this one) has came and is almost over, but a few weeks ago something just hurt my county. A young junior boy who many people had or did go to school with committed suicide. I never had the pleasure of truly knowing him, but so many of my friends did. That night, something in me just lit up. As sad as I was, I reached a point of anger. How could people say such awful things? How could the people tweeting have the nerve to say "Words can kill." when they are the same ones pushing people around and cutting people down? I couldn't take it anymore. Now here I am. The fire inside me hasn't went away and I just have to do something. I can't sit back and watch anymore. How many people have to hurt themselves or take their lives for people to see that words can hurt people in ways they can never even see?  No more watching. Time to do something.