“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” This is one of the most enduring idioms of our time, but it is also one of the most incorrect. One’s diction can completely change someone else’s perception of themselves and the world around us. I know this is a fact because I experienced it firsthand. For the past twelve years, there has not been a school week that has passed by without someone saying something contemptible to me. At that moment, what was said would debilitate me, but through the grand scheme of things it did little damage, at first.

Have you sat on a memory foam mattress? I have. During the first few minutes when you are sitting on one, it feels acutely uncomfortable because it has yet to shape itself to your body. You may stand up and see that the mattress looks exactly like it did before you sat on it. Is this really a memory foam mattress? So you press your hand into the mattress and you see that your handprint impression stays in the mattress for a couple of seconds, but then disappears. After a while, though, say a goodnight sleep, the impressions that your body makes on the mattress stay for hours. Then, after consistent use, they may stay there for days and there might even be minor impressions that never go away.

My life closely resembles the life of this memory foam mattress. At first, things were not too bad. Kids were going to be kids and if I did not receive rigmarole from them, I would have probably thought that something was seriously wrong with them. Time, though, took its toll. People knew exactly what to say to me and they knew exactly how I would react to them. The words have decreased in time over the years, but the cuts still remain, minor, but still present. Actions may speak louder than words, but words hurt you. Not in a physical sense, but they have the ability to cut one’s soul. I know because they cut mine.