Boom ! Screech: The Words That Changed My Life

In middle school I met a girl who quickly became my best friend. After we met, we did nearly everything together. We were simply incepreable. We continued to be very close all the way up into junior year of high school. This is when she met and started dating one of the senior boys from our school. She had always had a thing for "bad boys" and this boy was a picture perfect representation of one. After she started seeing him more, I started seeing her less and less. The boy she was dating apparently disliked me; a lot. He began to take control of everything in her life. When she came to lunch everyday at school, she would sit with me and a group of my friends and tell us how he would hit

It is imperative that one must understand that I began experiencing brutality at a very young age. When I was only four years young, the Klu Klux Klan burned down my family’s home in Nebraska, causing all of us to move to Michigan. Ironically enough, the same thing happened once again in our new home prompting my family and I to move once more. Despite those terrible events, I was still very

Today’s generation, young people don’t and never will understand what it’s like to be beaten (spiritually, mentally, emotional, physically) every single day. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Certain words, we were called, and maybe are still being called today, has had an impact on us. These words were called to break down our confidence, but it has only made us stronger internally. Emotionally, we were shattered, but our faith in God has brought us through everything.

At first, I tried to be positive about the attitude of my friend. I tried to pass it off as her being homesick or anxious about school. Eventually, I grew tired of her being rude whenever I came into contact with her, so I started to avoid her. We stopped texting each other and I started taking different routes around campus. Anything would be better than hearing another rude comment. The friendship ended negatively with her declaring we weren’t loving enough, and leaving. As if that weren’t irritating enough she blocked us on all social media and beforehand had made posts about how we had abused

Dr. Cullen presented quotes and pictures that have meaning. One of the first one she presented was “stick and stone may break my bones; words can scar a lifetime.” This quote is related to bullying and the act of verbally can take a life. Dr. Cullen also shows us the positive side of this quote like the act of verbally of kindness can save a life. People can walk outside by us every day and we don’t see their wounds. We don’t know what they are going through, so the act of kindness can help them and make them feel appreciated.

We both went to high school, and even more relatable, we both have medical issues and we both switched high schools. Headed into my freshman year I underwent surgery because of a tumor which was found in my cervical spine. The surgery left my right arm in complete paralysis. My first day of high school left me looking pretty pathetic. Walking in with half my face unresponsive due to nerve damage, a neck brace, and my right arm being controlled by the breeze, did not help me gain friends. People avoided me, I couldn’t tell if it was because they were afraid of breaking me more or because they didn’t want to be seen with me. Things started to change when a few of the seniors began to talk to me, and the teachers started to know me. I gained more friends through the process of social capital. Because of my new ties I was able to expand my group, so when went back for surgery in New York a whole class of people put together a “get well soon” package. High school was looking doable, but I was then presented with an option to transfer schools. The decision was hard, but I transferred. This new school would present me with more opportunities, just like Arnold’s new high school presented him with more opportunities, but just like him my old high school friends and school itself resented me. These changes in my life put me in new subcultures as well, which

I used to be an easy target because I couldn’t speak English. I couldn’t defend myself. My experience explains why I became an attorney for my county’s teen court. Most teenage defendants are there for petty theft, trespassing or damaging private property. I remember a group of middle school kids arrested for trespassing because two of them burglarized the school. The two boys I defended were among the most polite and genuine, virtues that are so scarce in modern times. After the case, the parents of the two boys thanked me for defending their kids and giving their kids the lightest sanctions, and I was touched. It was moments like these that made me feel proud to be a defense attorney. I acted as a voice for these defendants, when everyone

It all started when I met Julien. Now, don’t get me wrong, he was a nice guy and all, but he got on my nerves. For the most part, we were friends. I mean, we got into arguments here and there, but nothing too serious. That is, until a few weeks ago.

I hit a boy with a bat in the second grade after he said “short girls can’t play baseball.” I saw red, and as my mom says, “When Audrey is seeing red, let her be.” Overcome with emotion and not thinking about consequences, I was too young to find a constructive way to deal with things that upset me. It would not be until my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years ago that I found a balance.

One evening as I was walking home from my best friend’s house, I noticed a car of white boys driving slowly down the street. When the guys in the car saw me they started shouting the N word at me. The road that I was walking on was very isolated and sparsely populated. I was afraid to continue on way home so I chose to turn around and go back to my friend’s house because I was afraid. I was only a few feet from her house and the car of white boys threw a brick from the car and luckily it only hit my hand as I put it up to shield my face.

No matter what people say, high school is all about fitting in. Every school has their cliques, “mean girls”, and bullies. While every school seems to be a bit different in who takes those roles, they’re all the same in that no one wants to stand up to them. For that reason, unnecessary words harm innocent people every day. I’ve always had a strong sense of right and wrong, but in order to avoid the wrath of bullies, I have always tried to stay under the radar. My fear of being targeted kept me from standing up for Logan Weber, a student at my school with a learning disability, when a group of girls began calling her names during lunch. Instead of standing up for her, I sat at the table beside Logan and watched her grow humiliated in front

There was this girl that I met in my class that I had decided to befriend with my best friend. At first, we had fun times together. We did the things that any best friends would do: laugh, play games while hanging out, and talk about random things like unicorns for hours. It was totally drama free, and mostly everything was running smoothly. It was not until my friend, the girl, had started hanging out with this other girl, who, in my opinion, was not the type of girl that had the best personality in the world. She also did not give any good influence whatsoever to my friend. In other words, she was a mean girl who had made my friend start cursing more, as well as getting her to think that it was okay to bully, which had then induced them to think that they were better than most, if not all. My best friend and I had definitely noticed her starting to change, and we were upset by

    Picture this, 8th grade in middle school, your best friend at the time (Tabby) gets a boyfriend (Levi) and tells him, “Don’t you dare get a crush on my best friend, literally everyone does.” She also tells me, “It’s girl code that you can’t date him as long as we are friends.” You can probably guess how well that friendship went after they finally broke it off. She never knew how I felt towards him, how I thought of how well I would treat him if he was mine. I wanted them to break up and would always suggest it to her when she would complain about the relationship. Even though she tried telling me there was love in their relationship, I knew it was only one sided because she wouldn’t treat him well. She was always looking for another person before even deciding that she was breaking up with them and always flirting with people, even if they

Have you ever been bullied, harassed, or teased for a disability or something you couldn't control? In the 1920’s to 1930’s if you were a different race then you were discriminated against and the worst part is that they had no control over it. Cassie, the main character in Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry learned that no matter if she could stand up to to white people for the bad things that they did it wouldn't make them change and see that they were people too.

Are you hearing what I'm saying; how many punches have you taken? And you’ve chosen not to throw any punches back. That’s a choice you’ve made. So now the people around you assume that whatever they do to you is all right because of your silence.