Bullying

I have been bullied many times, however, the most important issue involving bullying i've been part of was when I was the bully. This is a case of cyber bullying verging on one of the biggest flame wars in the online brickfilming community. I was friends with the kid until I had my loyalties shifted by another friend. It all started about a year ago and continued till' about 2 and a half months ago.

The guy was named John. I was talking with him via youtube comments one day and someone else I knew, who shall only be named Eric, posted a comment saying; "John, you are a f**king c*nt, GO.TO.HELL. Now, initially this move surprised me until I learned of an ongoing feud between the two. Surprisingly, I took the side of Eric and lost a good friend. Here is how it happened.

Me: Eric, what are you doing?
Eric: What does it look like?
John: Back off Eric.
Eric: Go the f*ck to hell.
Me: What are you guys talking about?
Eric: I'll send you a pm! John can f*ck it!
Me: What are you guys talking about?
John: I'll send you a pm.
Me: Gawd.

The pms were not for me to read though. I was a tool to destroy my own friend. Used by Eric to settle personal matters with John. It wasn't pretty, I believed Eric more than John, big mistake. I began flaming John with my other friends Oliver and Garett. John fought back but not hard enough. John quit youtube permanently, thus severing all lines of connection with him. One of my other friends was so disappointed that John left, he left youtube later that day. We thought we were winners and reveled in the glory of our win, but we were wrong.

In the days that passed, I began to miss John, like a small part of me was torn away. I thought about telling Eric, Garett, and Oliver about it but with my better judgement, decided against it. In the days since then, i've begun to think more about John, how we used to have fun, talk for hours, brickfilm together and such. John, if you are reading this, I apologize and beg of you to forgive me, please.

Bullying, an issue that we've only scratched the surface of. As sad as this is, I can't possibly say nobody has tried. This issue has been flogged to death a million times over yet is continuing to be a larger threat in both the school and internet worlds. Online can present the issues of depression, moral bankruptcy, and phycological issues. Teasing, though in itself is a less serious state of bullying, has become a huge issue, especially on the basis of sex or race. Hateful aggression as such, has been growing all the time. Bullying reports, on the other hand, have been dropping, for the reason that children think it's "uncool" to "tattle". This is certainly an issue that must be tackled as bullying has led to mental illness and even suicide. This is a growing issue that must be tackled immediately. This seemingly minor issue has led to death. I think that to help prevent bullying we stop social networking during school hours, or at least limit it. Perhaps we can also try to have bad language usage lowered, something i've observed here is the choice words students use to vent anger, most of them nonsensical.

Courage.

I am going to think back to a time when i showed courage in the face of danger, pain, or grief. Courage, as defined by the new oxford american dictionary is:

nounthe ability to do something that frightens one : she called on all her courage to face the ordeal.• strength in the face of pain or grief : he fought his illness with great courage.Contrary to popular belief, I have before shown at least some courage in my life. Let me recount the best example of a time i've ever showed courage. 

One, and perhaps the best of times i've showed courage was when I conquered my fear of heights  by climbing up a steep face of wood twenty-odd feet. As this may not seem like much, we all have our own accomplishments that are only meaningful to ourselves and are insignificant to those around us. I have been afraid of heights for as long as i can remember. It keeps me from doing things that for other people would be considered ordinary. I chose against going up to certain places because I was scared of heights and missed out on a great time, or so I'm told. Tough this was probably true, I made no effort to change this until now. I missed out on a suspension bridge walk, a  view of the wetlands from 100 feet above the ground and an infinite other amount of things.

This has influenced my life for the better as I can now freely go anywhere I please, regardless of the altitude without barfing and passing out. It's given me so many new and exciting opportunities that have given me a new world view of the clouds and above. It's helped me with so many things already i can hardly count the days it hasn't. It was certainly an eye-opener. Before I leave, I'd like to tell you how long ago I conquered my fear, about two weeks now.