Zunairah Iqbal, IV-B
Have you ever wondered what an analogy for bullying might be? Almost everything has an analogy. Today, you’re going to read about what bullying does to the people around us.
You might have seen a rotten tomato lying among other tomatoes. If you notice, something just doesn’t feel right—that one tomato has rotted the others as well.
Think of bullying like this: one incident of bullying never leaves the victim’s heart. It means that one rotten tomato can rot the others too.
Bullying makes you lose your sense of worth. You begin to think you are worthless because your brain pressures you to feel that way. It rewires how you think about yourself, so to untangle those wires, you have to learn how to.
They say leadership is about being at the front, but being at the front also makes you a target. I am a prefect, and I’m usually the youngest in the room. My friends call me “ChatGPT” because I always have the answers. Some people say it as a compliment, but others use it to mock me.
Once, I won a debate, and another girl was crying because she lost the contest. I felt really sorry for her, as she had always been my most consistent supporter since the start of the semester. Her best friend told me to my face, “We don’t want you here. If you never existed, someone else could finally win.” I stayed silent, but it just didn’t feel right.
Later, those words started creeping over me from head to toe. I couldn’t bear the feeling that my hard work had made me an outcast, so I stood up for myself. “If you don’t like me, that’s okay—but don’t turn it into a joke.” My words echoed through the chain I had carried for days, but one moment of confidence finally broke it.
Here’s what I realised:
If I had stayed silent, the words would have spoiled me. If I spoke up, the rot would stop. So being a chain-breaker means being a determined leader, even when things are tough. Those words reflect their own fears; they are not about me.
You should not be bullied for who you are or what you do. Don’t stay silent. Be the one who breaks the chain of steel.
And here’s the truth: silence feeds the rot. When no one speaks, the harm grows quietly, spreading from one person to another.
Maybe the bully is dealing with their own pain, but that doesn’t make it right. Hurt people can hurt people—unless someone decides to stop the cycle.
You can be that someone.
Stand beside a classmate.
Offer a kind word.
Report what happens.
Choose courage over comfort.
Because kindness works the same way as rot, but in reverse. One small act can heal many.
Bullying doesn’t fade when the moment ends. It echoes—unless someone is brave enough to stop it.
It’s never too late to say, “It’s not funny.”