Let's Make East The Best It Can Be! by SS

“What bugs you?” I was asked this summer. The first things that I thought of were stuff like; people who don't like chocolate, sunburns, the color orange. But the more I started thinking about it the deeper my thoughts got and I eventually made my way to bullying. Bullying was really common when I was little even though I didn't notice, kids would make fun of other people if their name was different or hard to pronounce, the kids would be made fun of if they liked different things, ate different foods at lunch, didn't have as many friends, they made fun of other people's height, and how much they weighed. At the time I didn't notice anything was wrong, but looking back at it now I wonder how we let that happen, why was that normal?

My younger sister Sonia (9) has a bone disorder called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (aa·stee·ow·jeh·nuh·suhs im·pr·fek·tuh) better known as O.I. or Brittle bone disorder. What O.I. basically does is make your bones more fragile than average so they break or fracture a lot more often and it usually results in short body structure. In simpler words: She's short.

And some days she’ll come home sad because someone on the bus pushed aside and said, “move kindergartener”. Or she’ll be really sad or grouchy at night-time because some older kids held the bathroom stall shut when she was trying to get out. At the time when kids around me were being bullied it seemed fine, like it wasn’t that important, it was just a joke. But now I see how much bullying impacts the person who is getting bullied.

Now in middle school bullying is a lot more straightforward and sometimes more physical; resulting in fights. People can obviously see that someone is being bullied or bothered by someone else. I have always tried my best to stand up for other people even in hard scenarios, and try not to make fun of other people even if I meant it as a joke.

But now I want to go farther, this fall I'm starting to work with my school to make a new anti-bullying club that will work on inviting guest speakers to talk about bullying at school, be a safe space for students to talk and be themselves, and the group will overall help make my school a better place that is comfortable and safe to all the future students who attend there including my sister. I've heard the saying “one person cannot change the world” but isn’t it one person who starts it all?