Being in high school is harder now than it was twenty years ago. With the inventions of the internet, cellular phones and other means of communications, high school bullying can be a lot harder to deal with now than ever before. If you feel picked on, shamed, belittled or attacked by classmates and acquaintances, cheer up because life will get better. The older you become, the less those problems matter. You are a good person, whether or not the popular crowd likes you or not. If someone disrespects you then realize that it is their problem, not yours.
In high school back in the late 70's, there were two girls in my freshman class that nobody liked. One was my Biology lab assistant, I'll call “Lisa,” who was really smart and always got straight A's. The other girl, who I'll call “Sally,” was always class valedictorian, and had skipped more than one grade to be in our class. I liked both of them, but most people I knew made fun of them, sometimes ruthlessly. It was mean but both of them shrugged off the critics with total class and style. I respected them for not listening to the superficial girls and all their cruel giggling and analyzing.
One Monday, the headmistresses of our school came to our class and let us know that Lisa had been killed in a tragic car accident. She'd been on a weekend trip with the local natural history museum and the van that they'd been in plummeted off of a cliff in West Virginia to avoid an oncoming semi truck. Everyone was killed. It was so shocking, everyone was totally stunned. On Friday, I'd been talking to her about our Biology project. And now, she was gone. It was that quick.
The whole class went to her funeral, and changed their tune from being rude to sorry for what they had said about her. Some of them meant it, others didn't. Still, everyone grieved together. None of us had ever experienced the loss of a classmate before. It put life in perspective for most of us. This was the beginning of everyone's maturity. Though we had a long way to go, life wasn't so charmed anymore, we all knew we weren't immortal. For her differences, which were never crimes at all, Lisa taught many in my class not to prejudge and think before saying anything rude. They held their tongues, at least for awhile.
The other smart girl, Sally, went on to become valedictorian in our class all the way up to and including our senior year. Some classmates weren't nice to her still, but most of us had matured a lot since freshman year. Sally went on to get perfect scores on her SAT tests. It was a prediction of what was to come, I knew that she would excel brilliantly in whatever she chose to do… and she did.
Time went on, we all grew up and left the relative safety of our lovely all-girls' school. The real world beat some of us around; others have done very well for themselves. Sally did better than all of them. She drove into the twenty year reunion in a bright red Ferrari, parking it front and center in front for all to see. I cheered to myself, she showed them, and herself that she was bigger than any critic or bully that ever picked on or badmouthed her. She made a successful life for herself and has no regrets in life.
This just goes to show that if you ignore the critics, bullies and jerks who bother you in school, that life will reward you later for it. Just keep on your plan to build your life, and pursue your dreams. Time weeds out the critics. Most of the ones who picked on Sally picked on others too. They felt bad about themselves, deep down. If you're picked on, consider the source and brush it aside. You are bigger than all of that. You will succeed, just wait and see.
