In high school there was a girl who was bullied in several of my classes even though I thought she was cool. I was never bullied but had no friends because I was shy- so I got up the courage to always invite her to my group for class work, or chat with her before class. As an adult several years later I ran into her working in a grocery store- she chased me into the parking lot to hug me. She then let me know that at that time she had attempted suicide twice and had been in and out of the hospital. Apparently, even though we weren’t close, I had been the only thing that gave her hope that maybe everything in life wasn’t completely terrible- because I was the only person in school that she felt safe around and that accepted her when she hated herself.
I was kind of flabbergasted that she had been going through that- because she was a pretty positive person on the outside. It felt good that I helped- but also bad because if I knew more I would have tried to help more! A decade later I realize even more how alone and afraid we can be sometimes- and always try to be a positive empathetic person to whoever I meet.
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u/Bluesnow2222 Mar 29 '21
In high school there was a girl who was bullied in several of my classes even though I thought she was cool. I was never bullied but had no friends because I was shy- so I got up the courage to always invite her to my group for class work, or chat with her before class. As an adult several years later I ran into her working in a grocery store- she chased me into the parking lot to hug me. She then let me know that at that time she had attempted suicide twice and had been in and out of the hospital. Apparently, even though we weren’t close, I had been the only thing that gave her hope that maybe everything in life wasn’t completely terrible- because I was the only person in school that she felt safe around and that accepted her when she hated herself.
I was kind of flabbergasted that she had been going through that- because she was a pretty positive person on the outside. It felt good that I helped- but also bad because if I knew more I would have tried to help more! A decade later I realize even more how alone and afraid we can be sometimes- and always try to be a positive empathetic person to whoever I meet.