The Problem of Bullying Against LGBTQ Students

“Bullying towards LGBTQ students, that’s what I would like to write about.” The bell had just rung for the first day of my journalism class. About twenty of us sat around in a circle discussing article topics for our upcoming print edition newspaper. No topic was that important enough to be wasting more than half the class just talking about. However when you heard that deep voice say he wanted to write about LGBTQ in a very conservative school, most of the class was taken back.

He was about six feet tall wearing black skinny jeans, a studded military jacket, and had long, black dreads. You couldn’t help but stare as he walked into the classroom five minutes late already engaged into the conversation with the rest of the class. He took the computer right next to mine and started working on his article for the week. Tommy was his name, and I still couldn’t stop staring. I was intrigued, interested, and absorbed into this person.

I just didn’t expect someone like him.

My parents have never kept me sheltered, but when I saw him I forgot all about what my parents taught me. I looked at Tommy as another teenager who I could experience the diversity in the world in a viewpoint different from my parents. More importantly I looked at him and saw the future. He was going to be someone down the road where I can look back and be able to say that meeting him had changed my life.

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As the year progressed, I did just that and I’m sure he now regrets taking that seat next to mine. I questioned him, made him think, got him to dig deeper into why he was being this rebellious teenager when he could be out on the field playing football. He had an opinion about everything and he didn’t mind sharing. His main goal was informing the ignorant that there is a world outside these high school walls. Often Tommy would come to class with stories about a protest he had gone to over the weekend. He enjoyed conflict and being involved in conflict. If you asked him why, he would repeatedly say, “What drives me is my anger, and what guides me is my hope.” With Tommy’s advice I’ve learned that one who follows the crowd will go no further than the crowd.

So when I think about my future, I think about Tommy and how he has used his voice to succeed. I see these bricks that lay before me; a path of ambition that meeting Tommy has inspired me to go down. I want to travel, climb the tallest mountain, and ride an elephant in India. I want to drink beer during Oktoberfest in Munich, make a hole in one, and run a marathon. My future is unpredictable, but I have the confidence that I can attain anything I reach for. I inspire to be a professional writer after college. My dream is to one day write for a comedian like Chelsea Lately or script write in Hollywood. Meeting Tommy has impacted me to further my education and achieve those goals I’ve had my eyes on since I was a little girl. I can accomplish anything that I put my mind to. And I will reach my full potential in all that I do. And with a driven mind, University of Mississippi will not be ashamed. University of Mississippi will help me achieve that happiness we all search for in life.