A lot of you have probably heard of Netflix's show adaptation of the novel Thirteen Reasons Why. The people I see on my timeline have. Some of them are great people who I've seen advocate for anti-bullying and lots of other social justice causes.
But others... Others make me wary.
***Content Warning/Topic Warning: This is going to be an extremely serious post. Mentions of bullying, trauma, teen suicide. . . .
The Thirteen Reasons Why love is--for lack of a more apt term--triggering some awful memories for me.
Nothing against the book or the show themselves. I've never perused either and I doubt that I ever will. It's the people I'm seeing praise the show that are making me uneasy.
It's strange to me that I'm seeing the people who made me want to kill myself back in middle school and high school are now anti-bullying and saying that they'd never have done the things teen bullies do now when they were teens.
Odd when considering, they already did a lot of those things and more to not only me, but other victims. Or was making me and those other kids not want to live so insignificant that they really did forget? 🤔 (That's disturbing in itself.)
The things those people said and did to me back then messed me up for YEARS. Even now, every once in a while, I still have moments where I have to force myself to look in a mirror.
When you have years of people telling you that you're so ugly, so dark, such a weirdo, such a loser, and that no one would give a sh*t if you died, you really start to believe the things they say. Especially when your friends don't try to support you and your other peers all laugh and agree with the bullies.
It's traumatic sh*t, and it never really leaves your head, even after you've moved forward with your life.
And I think that's something A LOT of people, parents and educators included, fail to realize about bullying.
Now if my former bullies actually did change for the better now that they're adults, great. I'm glad. But having the gall to pretend that they didn't bully people themselves? Not. Okay.
F*ck outta here with the phony saint personas. I'm not here for it. Tell the truth.