So I’m starting this entry with a question.

Were you the bullied or the bully?

I was thinking about this the other day; and honestly, the course directory of your life truly lies on the answer to this question. 

Well, this blog is for the bullied. No tea, no shade, no pink lemonade, if you were the bully, but this isn’t for you. 

Personally, I’ve gone through my fair share of being bullied. Attacked. Disliked. And when I was younger, it used to bother me. I would cry, go home and ask my mom what was wrong with everyone.

But, and really lock in here, one day something clicked. Something told me that these little girls do not matter in the grand scheme of things. No one truly does if you don’t let them. 

Now, I don’t know if it was my mom’s constant response of, “they’re just jealous of you.” Or, if an actual brain cell grew, but this power to not care about what other people think has made me invincible. 

Not only has my confidence grown, but my power. This idea that the only person who can dictate who you are, how you act, what you do, is yourself has forever changed me. 

There is one story in particular that I can pinpoint as a time when I physically grew in confidence. I was 12. At this point, I had played softball for about eight years. The girls on my team were arguably better than me at softball (again, arguably), and because of this, as well as other underlying factors, I was always picked on. 

But, my mentality at this age was to just not respond and possibly one day they’d stop (spoiler they don’t). But, I realized, in this mentality, that what they were saying would build.

It would build to the point where I would explode on people that didn’t deserve it. ( i.e. my parents). 

Finally, my parents would tell me to say stuff back. If they do something rude, snap back with something petty. 

But, the wisest thing my parents told me was to shut them up with my talent, not my words.

So, this is my advice to anyone reading this, show them who you are, don’t tell them. 

You have the power to determine how you react to adversities. You can become something greater than they’d had ever imagined, or you can just sit there and pity yourself and become nothing. It’s up to you, babe.  

So, I write this blog to tell everyone that you can and will be great as long as you believe you will. If someone is messing with you, stand up, put on some lip gloss and contour and show them who you are.  

And if worse come to worse and you just can’t seem to pick yourself back up, in the wise words of my parents,

“They’re just jealous of you.”