school

One thing I learned from my school years is that teenagers can be brutal. I went to a secondary school which couldn't have been worse. Teachers were bullying each other. Teachers who even bully their students and students who would do the same. There was physical violence, harassment, charges, and even suicide. It was a time when you didn't dare to say a word in class because you already knew a foolish comment would follow, and the teacher would not stop it. It was a time when one came home crying every day, not knowing if anything would ever change. The only thing you knew for sure was that you didn't feel that way alone. Almost everyone was bullied. Today I wonder how a school can ignore so many things, looking away so much. The girl who took her own life held a voluntary presentation about suicide in one of my classes one week before. All of us screamed for help, but nobody was willing to help. Every single day I was told I was ugly, that I was too thin, that I was a s**t, and that I was not good enough. That was the daily routine I kept rebelling against.

It was all different at my new school. I was one of the popular ones, all students liked me, and everyone wanted to go out and have fun or hang out with me. No one in our class was bullied, and we had the best time together, even if it had little to do with school at all. No one cared how you were looking, because we were all young and experimenting with ourselves. No one was judged.

The irony is that those who used to be the badest are now sending facebook requests and trying to get me into bed. When you mention the old days, nobody ever wants to remember anything they said. It's funny how no one feels the need to apologize. We were kids, who can blame them or not? By the way, over half of this grade never reached their intended graduation. They and the teachers were apparently too busy pushing each other into the abyss. Be kind to the world, and the world will reward you.