"Slander"

You've been having a good day when suddenly some person slips up and tells you something that wasn't meant to reach your ears. It could be some kind of humor, something personal about yourself you entrusted someone with, or just someone whose had a bitch about you. It really doesn't matter which category it fits into, it still hurts. The worst part of hearing this kind of information is that there's usually not a hell of a lot you can do about the situation. The sad truth is that you can't make people stop talking about you.

This just recently happened to me. I knew there was nothing to stop the gossip circulating. I sat down shaking and wondered what my options were. I felt so ashamed about the issue, even though I knew it wasn't true. But that didn't seem to matter. I felt so bad that I couldn't even ring my family. That was my first mistake. Now really, that was the stupidest thing I could have done.

What I allowed these girls to do was damage my "sense of self". Even though what they had been saying was untrue and just plain cruel, I let myself believe I must have been a bad person for them to be saying this kind of stuff about me. But once time passed, I realized that kind of thinking is so untrue.

Sadly many of us have this kind of thing happen at some point in our lives. And when it's not about you, it's hard to understand why the other person is letting it get to them. Words can physically harm you, but when you're the victim of the gossip it's horrible, and it's painful.

to get through it!

I'd just like to insinuate that the next time you hear a humor about someone else, think twice before you repeat it. Remember how it felt when it happened to you, how made your skin "kilabutan" crawl to think people were talking about you behind your back. I'm sure almost everyone had the experience of being "headline/topic" at some points in their lives. And the only way to stop is by respecting others and not repeating the gossip you hear, no matter how good it sounds. Remember, in this game there's rarely discrimination, and the next time it could be YOU they're talking about!

***Now don't get me wrong, it's good to have simple friends, as they are fun and offer another network of people to socialize with. But you can't bet real friends, you know ones you wear tackies around, go to a movie when you are feeling down or just hang out and talk about stuff.