I’m sure you have heard the saying “A picture speaks 1000 words.” What does this picture make you speak? Feel? Think?

These are just a few of the many hateful words that have been spoken over me over the last few years that are practically engraved in my memory.

Words that have left a wound in my heart. Words that have deeply hurt and left me in tears. Words that I have not forgotten. Words that have caused me to question my self worth. Words that have no face behind them, just power.

Someone somewhere felt the need to say these words to me. It was easier for them to type these words behind a screen, than to say it to my face because online bullying gives a human being power. They bullied me, shamed me, and judged me.

I don’t know who wrote them, but whoever did felt that they could speak to me this way. They aren’t just words. They are words that caused to me feel things.

Words that left me Sad. Lonely. Ugly. Unwanted. Undeserving. Heartbroken. Sickened.

Somehow the world around us has taken the power of being behind the computer and used it to bring shame, torment, and hurt to people they don’t even know. It is devastating.

I know not everyone will like me or what I have to say, but I am human too. I am affected by these words. I have feelings and emotions. The shaming needs to stop. How are we ever supposed to grow and raise good people if we are ourselves are using the power of a screen to express awful things to one another?

We should be lifting each other up, standing beside one another, believing in the best of each other.

Over the years I have learned how to handle these words. I learned it is pointless to respond. I have learned I can’t give these words power. It is what the face behind them wants. I can’t let them destroy me.

But I am human, too. And I wish these words were just words, but they aren't.

Lets stand together and try and make a change. Lets show the next generation that our world doesn't need to by like this. Lets be a force of positivity. Lets unite and stop online bullying.

Follow me: @thefortintrio

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