Comics
Feb. 5, 2016
Good & Evil
the Racquette
7
by Melissa Downing
Creative Writing Dont Be Friends With... By: Anonymous
Before gossip influenced what I thought about them, I presumed they were just fine. I almost agreed to sleep with one of them. I let one of them into my room for a I’ve got a confession to book. I hung out a few times make. I discriminate. I’m with one of them. I watched judgmental. Even worse, I my friend date one of them. talk about others behind their I didn’t say anything when backs. I tell teachers and they told my friend they destudents to stay away from served nothing and the only people because of what I good thing they’d ever have hear about them. And truthwas that relationship though. fully, all the things I’ve heard I thought it was regular about those people, well, it relationship bumps. I hoped might not even be true. I’ve my friend would move on never seen those people “in from it because that person the act.” I’ve never caught wasn’t worth their attention. them doing what they’ve alI sat back and let time take legedly done. its course. Neither has the school. Now I’ve learned first Apparently some RA’s know, hand what an abusive relabut if it was that bad tionship looks like. those people would be off It’s not just an abuse cycle campus, right? chart to look at on the school
guidance counselor’s wall, or a t.v. show where we can see what’s right and what’s wrong clearly. Abuse is hard to wake up to. No one wants to be a victim. Abusers will be damned if they call themselves an abuser, and, fuck, it’s hard to look at anything from the outside and deal with the reality of a situation. The most anyone can do is support a person and know that they are a victim in their current situation, that they are a survivor the second they step away and ask for help. However, as a responsible person in a community, you need to warn people of those who to identify as abusers. You need to keep the people around you safe, even if the legal system won’t. So begin to discriminate.
Don’t be friends with abusers. Drop your friends who insist on being friends with them too. If you feel unsafe in a situation or a potential situation, let people know the truth and tell them who the abuser is in the group. Remember that it is difficult for the person who experienced the abuse to disclose what happened to them, so they’re probably not lying to you if they tell you their story. Respect them enough to believe them. If you do tell people who the abuser is, don’t disclose who told you. Choose to do more than sit back. Choose to reveal the truth, keep others safe, and contribute to a better world.
Submit To The Racquette Do you have creative work you’d like to have published? Send in your submissions to racquette@potsdam.edu Submission must include Name Phone Number Email Adresse The Racquette is looking for creative writing submissions of all kinds Get Writing!