Dear Bully, You Are Ruining Things Because We Are Awesome And You Are Not

About nine years ago, DEAR BULLY, the anthology of authors telling their stories of being bullied, or standing by, or being bullies was released. Carrie was the co-editor for this anthology.

And I am so proud of all the authors in there.

HEY YOU! AUTHORS! I AM PROUD OF YOU!

For a lot of them, it was a big act of bravery to tell their stories. For a lot of them, it was a big act of bravery just to survive.

I was thinking about that right now because our country (The U.S.) is having some major difficulties and bullying is the norm despite all the efforts and advocacy that happened back in 2009.

And there are truths in every single story of that anthology that resonate. Those truths are that pain is real, that actions and words can shatter us, that it's hard to remember how awesome you are when people are telling you that you aren't.

And there are differences in the experiences too. Some authors hurt more than others. Some used the experience to try to become stronger. For every one of us, the story is our own, and it is different. But one of the biggest, and greatest truths in those stories is that each and every one of us survived. We all lived to tell our stories. And if you are reading this right now or listening on the podcast that means that you have lived through too.

And here's the thing. You must keep on living and fighting and trying to remember that you are awesome even when people are hating on you.

People hating you doesn't change that you have worth.

People being violent towards you, doesn't mean you don't deserve respect, and tolerance and love.

People ignoring you on purpose, doesn't mean that you don't deserve to exist.

And the opposite is true. You don't get to hate, to decide other people's worth, to be violent and disrespectful either. We have to be the shiny light that we want in our lives.

Writing Tip of the Pod

What's this have to do with writing? Well, it was an anthology of true stories from writers that Carrie co-created, but it's also about what makes the best stories.

Hint: It's not just having a beginning, a middle, and an end.

It's about having a point. It's about believing in something. It's about being honest and having something to say, something that might be hard to say but needs to be out there.

Dog Tip for Life

Treat everyone the way you want to be treated. It's as simple as that.

SHOUT OUT!

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.

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