odd girl out: 13th reading

Reflections on “Odd Girl Out” by Rachel Simmons

By Cristian



Once in 7th grade at Lincoln Middle School, my best friends and I were eating lunch. Some 8th graders were walking in our direction and they began to make fun of one of my best friends over the look of his lunch bag. We fought verbally. They mainly picked on me because I was standing up to them. They called me racist names and wanting to know what race I was. I fought back at them with making fun of them for thinking I was a certain race even though I was not. Yes, I used humor to get back at them. At the time I felt it was the best way to defuse the situation. By the end of the day many people knew I had stood up to this group of bullies.

When this happened, I felt a mix of many strong emotions, sadness, guilt, anger, and even happiness. When I stood up to these people, I felt strong, and powerful and in control. However, after the incident, I felt guilty for stooping to their level by calling them names. I really did not know what to think for the fact was I was very confused by the matter. I told my parents, and like me, they felt mixed emotions about the whole thing as well.

It did lead to a whole discussion about bullying in our home and when it was appropriate to stand up for your self. Both my brother and I have been the victims of bullying and we have always had a hard time understanding why people hurt others in this way. My parents tried to make us understand that bullies probably come from families that do not validate their children very well and so in order to feel better about themselves, the bullies put others down.

Because of problems at home, they release their anger out on people, or they are psychologically damaged because of their environment, or the have a deep, subliminal struggle in them, things like this could force somebody into being a bully. People deal with emotions by dumping them on someone else. Ultimately, I think bullies are people that need more love and compassion. It is the lack of love and compassion in their own lives that has taught them that it is ok to treat others badly.

I also believe that our society has made it acceptable to bully. Society rewards bullies all of the time, even electing some of them to the Presidency of the United States. Statements like, “boys will be boys” or “they are just being kids”, lets bullies get away with treating others badly. There has to be a shift in the way our society thinks and deals with bullies in order to solve this problem. There is also the added problem of cyber-bullying that is taking place in our society. People bullying others through the internet. We must start to stress other values as a society if we want to teach people to treat others with respect and compassion.