"A song you would sing a duet with at karaoke."
This song might go over a "duet" with more people, but dang this is a fun song.
Now that that's out of the way....
So a few years ago while I was still a substitute teacher, there was a sweet, shy girl. Her personal hygiene wasn't the best, her clothes were usually not too clean, and she always ate lunch by herself. If I ever had her in a class I was subbing for, I would go out of my way to talk to her and help her feel included with whatever the class was.
The other students weren't very nice to her, and would tease her, and from the start of that school year, I noticed that as the days went by, she became more excluded, unless she was being teased or ignored. She was bullied, but not by one particular bully, it was just a whole bunch of different students.
However, I learned a lesson close to twenty years ago, and I wanted to test it out, and not like she was a lab rat, but I had a hard time when I was in elementary school, I was bullied, that continued into middle school, and things got better in high school, and I learned this lesson, it was something that helped me out, and I wanted to try something for this poor girl. I told the student body officers, and other kids that I knew that had classes with her.
Two weeks later, I saw this poor girl, but she was walking with, not next to, but with one of the student body officers that started noticing this girl and just started being nice, and over the course of a couple of months, this girl's whole world changed. She got invited to go out with her new friends, I told the other students that they didn't have to go out of their way all the time, but once this girl started having people talk to her, she started to look a lot more happy. Her clothes always looked nice, she got involved in extra curricular clubs, like she played Soccer, and was really good at it. She joined in with the choir, and even got a good sized role in the school play that year.
She wasn't the prom queen, but was nominated and was one of the runners up. The more people that noticed her, talked to her, and became friends with her, the better she reacted and ended up graduating on the honor roll, which was awesome because she was in a couple of remedial classes because her grades weren't the best in the regular classes. This girl was awesome! I'm not going to take credit for anything. I really wanted to try to just make her seem less miserable.
This is what I learned between my own experiences of being bullied or disliked, and then was able to pinpoint when things were better for me.
If you want people to stay the same or become worse than they are, that person will stay the same or will become worse than they are. If you treat someone better than they actually might be, and you keep treating that person better, that person will rise to the level they are being treated at. It's strange how our minds work. It's strange that words really do impact us the way they do. Sometimes we say sticks and stones, but really, words hurt. Bad actions hurt.
So, I guess what I am saying is, don't be mean, especially to someone you don't know. That poor girl's life was completely changed. It doesn't matter if it's someone you go to school or work with. It doesn't matter if they are a family member or not. Everyone deserves to be the best person they can be, and I honestly believe that a little smile or nice exchange of words in a positive way will help make someone else's life better. One smile, one compliment, and one nice words of exchange or help is going to make this world a better place than it is right now. We need to treat the world with love, compassion and kindness, and I'm willing to bet that this world can make a positive change. Treat and help others reach their potential. We only get one life to live here on Earth. Everyone deserves a good one!
Thank you so much for supporting my blog. I hope that it can help you or someone you know have as better day, or at least a moment where the world doesn't seem so dark. I love you all!
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