“Oh, there’s that ghetto broke girl.” 
Transferring to a high class school from a lower class school was like moving to a whole new world. I changed schools with less than three months left. People who knew where I came from would yell things to me like “Go back to where you came from!” or “You’re too ghetto to be here.”
I tried to not let it get to me, but then it got harder.
As I walked to study hall each day, there would be this really tall kid waiting to shove me. One day, he punched me in my arm and left a big bruise. It was like that during my last three months.
One night I was laying in bed with my mom watching television and I just broke down. I’ve never felt so hated and so worthless. I have had a history of self-harm before I changed schools. And now the kids at my new school made me feel like I was nothing and like I was a scum from the bottom of the Earth.
The feeling I woke up with everyday was horrible. Sometimes I would find myself crying to sleep. I would wake up in the mornings and dread having to go to school. I wanted to drop out. I didn’t want to go to the place I would often refer to as hell.
The summer before my sophomore year was the worst summer. People were spreading rumors about me:t I cheated on my boyfriend at the time, they called me a slut, a whore, a skank, and a THOT(that hoe over there). In actuality, I was sexually assaulted.
My brother and I would get into arguments and he would beat the crap out of me. My brother that was two years older and double my size. Everyone I had once called my friend turned their backs on me when I needed them the most.
My sophomore year at my new school was slightly better. People would still say things about me, but they wouldn't say it  to my face. It may surprise you, but I liked it better that way. No one knew what I went through. No one knew the troubles I went through that last summer or even during that year.
Then came my junior year. I was determined to have a great year. I was going to ignore all the bullshit people would say about me.
Then I met him. Royal, my ex. He was the first guy I let in. He was the first guy I truly trusted. And he was the first guy I let mentally and physically destroy me.
I told him everything I went through. I let him know every single one of my weaknesses. I let him in my head. Letting that happen was the worst thing I could have done. Every time we would get in an argument, he would use my weaknesses against me. He would tell me to go cut myself deeper. He would say I belonged in a mental hospital. He told me I should kill myself. And the worst thing he ever said to me was that next time I should get raped instead of molested. That was the lowest thing he could have said to me because he knew how much that destroyed me after it happened.
He psychially destroyed me, it was the cuts and the burns I would do to myself, it was him burning me with his cigarette, it was him hitting me when I tried to break up with him. It was the pain he caused me for the six months we were together.
But thanks to everything that I have been put through, I’m here. It’s senior year, and I’m ready to face anything that comes my way. I refuse to let anything get to me and get in my way of doing what I need to do to finish school and bring me down. I am stronger now than I ever was before.
You need to look at all the pain that has been brought to you and look at what it has done to you and look at how it has made you stronger. Everything you have been through has made you the person that you are today, and you need to embrace the person that you have become.
I know who I am and what I’m about, I will not let anyone’s judgements define me. I will stand my ground. I will not let them in. I will not let them bring me down. I will not let them win.