Okay, I’m going to be straight with you. High school sucks. I guess for some people high school is a time of happiness and homecoming hookups, gossiping with friends at the lunch table, or deciding whether to buy a cookie or fries because there’s nothing more important to worry about. But those people are ridiculous. For the rest of us, though, high school is the most stressful time of our lives: braces, B’s, b*****s, and boyfriends (HA!). The “B” that affected me most of all, though, was bullying.
“Max. Put it down. You don’t want to do this. Please,” I heard Cassie’s voice, but it sounded like she was miles away.
Some people might not even consider the bullying that afflicted me to be true bullying. Most adults would …show more content…
Some of you may have known my younger brother, Kennedy.” This caught my attention; I went to school with Kennedy until… “Two years, four months, and thirteen days ago, Kennedy took his life. We had no idea why until we found his note. It read, ‘One of the biggest reasons why I killed myself is to prevent suicides. I want to prevent anyone I can from hurting. Words can hurt as much as, if not more than, physical blows’ (Chai). His death took us completely by surprise, and left us with a lot of pain. However, I now have the opportunity to talk to students like Kennedy, and hopefully get through to them, to make sure that no one else ever feels the need to commit suicide. Kennedy took his life because he was bullied, and thought it was the only solution. I’m here to tell you how horribly, horribly wrong that is.
“Now, I know that most of you are probably sitting there thinking, ‘This is stupid, bullying isn’t an issue here and it doesn’t affect me”. I felt that same way until two years ago, and now my entire life has changed. I never imagined that I would become a speaker, traveling to high schools, talking about bullying. Yet here I am, because bullying changed my life and it may change yours too. My job today is to make sure that none of you are affected by bullying by informing you about it and how to prevent …show more content…
First of all, the first national anti-bullying program was enacted in 1980 in Norway, even though “bullying” has been happening since the mid-1500s. However, since then, ‘states and provinces had enacted a variety of anti-bullying laws and policies across Canada, Europe, Australia, and the United States (Faris). Unfortunately, I don’t believe these policies are extremely effective, considering my brother’s reasoning for his suicide, which is why I became a speaker. I think one of the best measures to take is to learn the facts to eradicate