The story of Amanda Todd has gone viral. The above video explains it all. This poor girl was harassed and bullied constantly. Nobody was willing to step up and help her. Nobody would accept her. She took her life.
Stories like this happen every day. In our own lives, there are people who have been ostracized, ridiculed, shunned, and tormented. There are people who have nobody. People who are alone. People who just need someone to care. Honestly, why can’t that someone be you? What will it really hurt to walk up to the person and treat them like a human being? Will it really inconvenience you that much to have a conversation with them? It could save their life.
But instead of being bold and stepping away from the crowd, we mask our fear, apathy, and conformity with pointed fingers and humor. We laugh at the misfortune of others, we say it’s all their fault, we make jokes to make ourselves feel better.
Dare to be different. Have a heart. Break down the walls that have made you so insensitive. Compassion is not a weakness. Sympathy is not a weakness. Love is not a weakness. They are valid emotions that have a vital place in the human heart, and need to be expressed. Apathy is the real sign of weakness.
Be bold and let your heart be opened to experience a wider scope of emotions; let your eyes be opened to see a world beyond yourself; and let your world be opened to let someone unexpected into it.