“Did you hear what happened?” “Have you heard what they’re saying?” “If only you knew what I know about them.” We’ve all experienced the harsh reality of rumors. While it is a common topic between friends to catch each other up on what’s been happening, starting or spreading rumors is genuinely cruel. As much as we all think of it as harmless sharing, bullying is in the heart of rumors.
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Rumors aren’t just present in school hallways and in the lives of teenage girls like the movies portray. They are also seen in the business world, in war zones, and in, generally, every popular media outlet. Media outlets thrive off of vicious and often false information that leads to the break down of an individual’s reputation, whether celebrity or politician. In war zones, an instance of shared information with the wrong person could potentially cost lives and resources. Rumors in the professional world are the epitome of immaturity and low self esteem. If you find yourself spreading rumors to bring someone or something else down in order to make you or your idea grand; I’m sorry to break it to you, but you’re simply making yourself look toxic and desperate. Keep in mind that focusing on bettering you, your ideas or whatever it is you are passionate about is more important than trying to win over the success of another. Find pride in creating something positive and solely yours.
We’ve all experienced rumors no matter how big or small. Lying in bed and dreading having to leave the house and face the crowds, from a personal experience, is a feeling I’d never wish on anyone. I can still recall the drastic rumors that spread like wildfires at my middle school and high school that constantly brought people down. Some were harsh enough that students transferred schools. I was lucky enough to have always been surrounded by positive friendships and too busy of a schedule to have ever been the topic of lunchtime gossip. At the end of my senior year, I found out about a rumor going around school about the relationship I was in at the time. I look back now and think of how stupid it was but in the moment I felt like I had been swept off my feet in shock. I was working in the school library with my chemistry partner on our final project when my phone began to blow up. My best friends and boyfriend at the time began sending me a million messages and calling me nonstop. I answered the phone and my boyfriend gave me the rundown and tells me not to worry that the rumor wasn’t true. I immediately reach out to my best friend, trying my best to whisper as I was in the middle of the school library with people beginning to stare at me, and ask her to tell me the truth. The ending of this story is irrelevant but the way I felt still feels so clear in my mind and is the focus here. I remember feeling so stupid and naive to have been the last one in the entire senior class to hear about the rumor. I felt so paranoid and upset that people I never talked to were talking about something so serious to me. Such paranoia fill us with unhealthy levels of anxiety and negative thoughts that stay in the back of our memories forever. They make us feel like our worlds are closing in on us and make us feel less than who we know ourselves to be. Even as rumors pass they leave an unhealthy level of self consciousness and personal doubt.
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The bottom line is that rumors hurt the people they are about in ways that one will never know or be able to comprehend. Rumors are thieves of first impressions, of kindness, and basic human dignity. Recognize when your comments could be hurtful or could ruin a reputation. Despite the cliche, change can start with you. It’s important to be self aware, mature and to keep other’s business out of our lives. We are grown and drama and rumors should be left in our adolescence along with our immaturity. Focus on yourself and the person you want to be and one day be remembered as. Live your life with the compassion this world so desperately needs. Treat people with kindness, it’s a lot easier at the end of the day.
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