Victim To Hero

• Georgia Juler, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2014

Every day is like endless torture, coming and going over and over. It never stops, even when I think I am happy, I know I am not on the inside. This is depression, and the cause of it is, you guessed it, it is bullying. It is scary, because you never know when it will strike you. For example, when I hear someone call my name, even when I know who it is, or what it’s for. I still get scared. I wish it would end. The world always seems so gloomy, even on the sunniest days. Sometimes I think of talking about it to my parents, and then I back away because I am always worried about what their reaction would be. Sometimes I lie about how I am feeling, so no one finds out. But every now and again, I would imagine lying down by a river, and finally for one day I would be free and happy. But every time, depression somehow seeps through like rain, and causes a thunderstorm that destroys everything, and the world that had finally seemed happy for a while, is back in the shadows of depression, and is once again gloomy and horrifying. I had eventually started thinking up ways to stop this, like, they call me fat, and so I will stop eating. They say I look ugly, so I will wear a mask of makeup. They say I am dumb, so I will get tutored. They call me a loner, but that is only because I have social problems. My only friend is a toy called Monty. They call me a baby, so I will grow up. The list could go on and on for days. Sometimes I wonder how they can think up new insults every single day, and how they always manage to find me in the playground. I always thought that I was the only victim but I was too blind to see that I was not the only victim of bullying. Finally, I decided that enough is enough. So I told my teacher, she told the principal, who found out who they all were, and immediately expelled them, leaving a black mark on their reports. After that, their other victims thanked me for putting an end to their misery, and asked to be my friends. For that one minute, the sun finally shone down on our once miserable world, and life was good again. My mum found out that I had insecurities about my weight, so she fed me healthier food, and took me to the gym twice every week. But for school, my friends and I, made a new bully busters program. There were countless people signing up for the program, because they wanted to stand up to bullies, but never got the chance. Soon enough, our school seemed so much nicer, and we finally had a bully-free environment. We all felt a lot safer. Because we now know, small words go a long way.