You really should speak up for yourself as well as others. Sometimes saying something can make all the difference. There have been a couple times in my life that I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know how to say it. I have realized that it’s much better to do the right thing than to do what you want to do. Whether it’s to fit in or just because you may not want to cannot be used as excuses anymore. Deep down if I just sit and watch something happen I know that i’ll be disappointed in myself knowing that it wasn’t the right thing to do.

One time when I was in middle school, I was sitting at lunch with a group of my friends and one of them started to talk about someone. The person who was being talked about was actually one of my childhood friends, but instead of standing up for her against my friend group I joined in the gossiping just to fit in. This person had never done anything bad to me and I honestly don’t know why I did what I did other then to fit in. The group of girls actually ended up turning their backs on me ,which wasn’t very surprising, and I only had friends in the group of people. It felt like i had no one there for me. One day I lunch I was sitting at a table with 3 other girls who had no interest in talking to me and the girl I had gossiped about sat next to me.

I had felt so bad for not sticking up for her, but also for talking badly about her. Even after all that I had put her through, she was still there for me. I had ditched her and put her in the same situation that the group had put me in and as we were talking I realized how horrible I was and how that must have made her feel to have no one. We started doing everything together, and making our own group of girls that all supported each other. My old group of friends had realized how cruel they had been to all these people and they stopped talking about people all together. Yes, this story has a happy ending but it could have ended so badly. If my friend had not been so understanding and kind, 7th grade would have been absolutely horrible for me. So the next time you see something wrong happening, say something whether or not you want to you should always do the right thing.

-Nicole P.