A Seemingly Endless Struggle and How It Actually Ended

There was a time when I could not find a light in my life. I was convinced that everyone who I ever cared about would leave me. During this time I was a victim of severe bullying, and the few friends I was able to make transferred schools - twice. I was devastated and as a result, stopped interacting with people. I used to come home from school crying because of loneliness. I could not understand why this was happening to me.

Then one day, while I was searching around on the Internet I found a geeky feminist news site. They had a well moderated comment section and the people were very accepting. On a whim I typed up a rather silly comment and sent it over there. I cringed in embarrassment shortly afterwards, but the next day I found out that not only did people like my comment, they actually replied to it. I was flattered beyond belief. These people actually believed that I was smart? They thought that my opinion was actually worth something? I was quite flattered and thus started talking there more and more. When my parents and I would get into a fight I would log onto the chat, tell them my problems and would get at least one person telling me I was not the piece of garbage that I felt like. They assured me that it really was normal to feel anxious about certain things.

Their encouragement gave me courage to do things in the real world. I handed out my resumes, and started taking the bus to gain some independence.  I started arguing for things I believed in, and stood up to bullies. I don’t know where I would be without them.

-Karly Reiter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC5aJGSG0is