The Wallflower's Voice

A "Formal Written" Work

If I was in your class, would you notice me? Many people would like to think so, however, some people just get ignored. I've been one of those people for most of my life. That kid that sits in the corner, the one by the trashcans at lunch, the person "reading" at the back of the room. Don't deny it, you all know one of us. To you, we may be weird, very different, creepy, or even just plain boring. We've noticed you don't bother to talk to us. We became shyer, more awkward to satisfy your stereotypes. We became unsure what to do when confronted. So we hid, we withdrew, pretended we had a better life. Got lost in books and movies, TV shows and Netflix series. They offered us an escape and we took it greedily to relieve our pain...

We are the first targets for bullies, for mean children looking for an easy win. No one stands up for us, no one seems to even care. We have one of the highest suicide rates of any group of people. We hide the pain we feel because we feel like that's what we're supposed to do. All of us are human, and treating us different changes us. We feel like our place is the corner, the back, by the trash. We label ourselves weird and different, less than human. It's not healthy, not natural. A person that holds all that pain, weight, silence, and loneliness eventually collapses. Bottled emotions and fake smiles, lies and scars, silenced thoughts and swallowed opinions. People say that words don't really hurt. Tell that to the scars we have. Tell that to the depression, the darkness, the overbearing sense of self-hatred. Still think we chose this?

You try not talking to any of your friends for just one day. Not Snapchating, not Tweeting, not Facebooking, not Instagraming, not talking to anyone who is not your family. Just one day, and you'll probably go pretty nuts. And we deal with it every day. But what's that you say? We've gotten used to it? Yeah, I guess you could get used to having yourself ripped away from you. You could get used to the pain of someone hitting you every day. But why would you want to? Just about anyone would want to stop these things from happening. But no one stops the pain of loneliness. You watch it happen, not knowing anything.

Have I convinced you yet of how much we need this to change? How YOU need to stand up and be a friend to the wallflowers. Yes, you. No excuses. Get out there and save a life.