When I entered high school, I thought I had it made.

I was accepted into a rigorous academic program, got the lead in my school musical, made captain of the softball team.

I prided myself in all of my achievements.

Yet I found the more I achieved, the more people hated me.

I felt completely outcast, as if no person cared for me.

I could hear people talk about me behind my back, could sense the stares of people's judgemental eyes as we passed in the halls, could see the way people treated me as if I was not even there.

I took each name thrown at me as another scar added to my heart: the teachers-pet, the liar, the whore.

I was told I was mean, vain, conceited, sheltered, annoying, stupid, worthless.

I was pinned as "Little Miss Perfect" who got everything she wanted, who never failed a class,

Who always got the part, who always made the team or club or sport,

Who NEVER had to try for a single thing she got because she ALWAYS got it easy.

I was pinned for all this by people who didn't even know me,

By people that had only allowed themselves to judge me based off of what they perceived me to be on the outside rather than on the inside.

Not ONE of those people knew that I had recently lost my Godmother to a rare form of lung cancer.

Not ONE of  those people knew that I was bullied throughout middle school for being "ugly" and "fat".

Not ONE of those people knew that because of that bullying that I had previously faced that I was now dealing with Anorexia and at times only eating a yogurt a day while at the same time doing 30 minutes of running, 100 sit-ups, and 30 push ups every day just so I could feel good aboout myself despite already being 100 pounds and despite being threatened by my parents to be sent off to a "special place" where I could be helped because I was troubled and had a problem and was now medically considered ill and underweight.

Not ONE of those people knew that because of the judgment they were serving to me on a platter of hatred that I was going to leave school and stay at home to be home-schooled just so that I wouldn't have to face the constant ridicule from each and every one of them.

Not ONE of those people knew that I, "Little Miss Perfect", had experienced sickness and death, had watched a person deteriorate in front of my eyes and then watched myself deteriorate in front of everyone else's eyes.

Not ONE of those people knew that...because they never bothered to ask.

I guess it's hard to imagine what a person has been through when society is trained to look only skin deep but never deeper.

I can't say that I have been completely free from passing judgement myself or that I have always asked a person if they needed help even though they were trying not to show it.

But, as a society, we are not aware of the fact that everyone has problems, some that they can't even help.

The girl  society calls "hefty" may really be on a medication with side effect WEIGHT GAIN

The homeless man society calls "a burden" may really be a man who gave all he could to take care of his daughter and yet has nothing left.

The criminal society calls "cold-hearted" may really be a wrongly accused bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We, society, must work together to end these prejudices and create an environment in which we all feel loved,

Where nobody has to be known as "hefty" or "a burden" or "cold-hearted" or "Little Miss Perfect",

Where everybody can be known as "EQUAL".

Because

In the end,

All we have in this world

Is each other.