My Experiences Taunting Others

Maybe it was his dirty clothes, greasy hair, Southern slang, short height, whatever the reason no one seemed to want to be his friend. His name was Jacob. It took a day or two till we started to jeer at him. The sharp, condescending way we said each insult, the menacing glares we gave, daring him to say a word, to protest against our petty insults. Despite all the taunting it never reached physical abuse, but always we made walls, walls that prevented him from becoming part of our group. If he approached we turned away, pretended to be grossly engaged at coloring the dinosaur, tossing the tennis ball, viewing the white fluffy clouds. If he spoke we would ignore him. I was terrified that if I looked at him, sat near him, breathed him, his unpopularity would breach my defenses. I didn’t like it, the way everyone treated him, but why argue with the rest of the group? It’s not like I owed him anything, and besides, I was too scared to risk my own acceptance for his.

About three days into the camp Jacob seemed to realize that he had made no friends. He went around trying to talk to us, butt into the group we had already made. Each time he tried everyone would reject him, and it just got worse and worse. Some ignored him, others called him names and told him to go away. I didn’t think much of it, it’s not like it was my issue.

“Hello?”

“Hi.”

My brain thought fast, reviewing the past few seconds with rapid speed, verifying what I just did. Jacob tried to talk me, and I had responded in a friendly way. It was just a reaction my body had, I didn’t actually mean it. I quickly turned away, hoping that no one else noticed my mistake. I retreated deep into my group, eighteen boys who I befriended. I prayed that even thought I just ta...

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...uld take on the world. I had won respect of my friends, what more could I ask for? After a brief exclusion from the group, my respect was fully restored. “Let’s go eat at the gym.” At that moment I felt proud, I felt like a gladiator who emerged from the Coliseum strong and unscathed, walking along with the crowd of Rome, congratulating me on my great triumph. Jacob was still at the end of the hall.

There always will be regrets when I look back at my childhood, but the day I succumbed to peer pressure and abused another person just to be cool is something I deeply regret. What makes me feel worse is that no one asked for me to threaten Jacob, I did it on my own will. I was so desperate for everyone else’s friendship I was willing to hurt Jacob to be friends with everyone else. Friends that were willing to ditch me just because I talked to someone they didn’t like.