“Don't be afraid of being different, be afraid of being the same as everyone else.” One of my biggest observations of life was that you should not make what people say about you make you change who you are. Many girls, and boys, in middle and high school are bullied every year to the point that they start resenting themselves or go as far as wanting to commit suicide. I know how this feels because I was one of those kids . Growing up, I was very different from most girls around. My voice was deeper, my style was different, and my actions were not the same. This made a good target towards bullying and even peer pressure. This made me doubt myself more and resent myself in many ways. I would come home from school crying or sometimes keeping the feelings suppressed and not let my parents know what was happening. I made people define who I was as a person and it made me change myself in so many ways. During the beginning of my middle school year, I was transferred from one school to this next. This was because at my school I was bullied so severely that I was on the verge of about to commit suicide. I had even harmed myself, many times, without my parents knowing about it. After I was transferred the bullied continued and it got worse. I was called a man because my voice was deep, I was called fat because I was overweight, I was called bald-headed because my hair was short, and I was called ugly. I would allow people's words to get inside my head and it started to make me hate myself and everything about me. During this time period I felt like I had no one to talk to because I felt like they would not understand what I was going through at the time. My self-esteem was being diminished little by little everyday and I kept hating myself everyday more and more. I would look up and ask God, “Why, why did you make me like this?”, “Why do I have to be different from the rest of girls?” It was not until my 9th grade year, when I was reading an article online and I came upon a quote : “Don't be afraid of being different, be afraid of being the same as everyone else.” Anonymous After reading the quote I started to see things from a different perspective. It was like even if my voice is deeper than most girls i'm still beautiful, even if I am overweight I am still beautiful, and even if my hair is short I am still beautiful. Being different from everyone else was ok . It took me a long time to love myself for who I am and being able to be comfortable in my own skin. I had to learn to not allow people's words about me change the person that I was. I shouldn't have to change who I was because someone doesn't like me for who I am. All that matters is that I love myself first.