Scars. Each one tells a different story. The one from when you fell off your bike as a little kid. The time you and your best friends were playing man hunt at midnight and you ran into a tree. But what about the ones that were left by the people who were supposed to love you. 

    You know that girl that you talk about because “her face is so caked on.”  Well, you don’t think twice about the insecurities she’s hiding behind the “ten layers of makeup” she applied to feel like a normal teen.  The reality is her makeup is her security blanket that you tear down by calling her names because she looks a little different than you.

     What you don’t know is that her layers of makeup cover the bruises her boyfriend of two years slapped onto her face in anger because she posted a picture he didn’t approve of. Or the scar above her lip from the time he got mad at her for smiling at a friend walking past her in the hall. 

     How about the boy who wears the same three long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts to school every day, no matter the temperature. Those long sleeves shield the world from seeing the cigarette burns his mother put on him for taking the trash out 10 minutes after he was asked to do so.

     Have you ever noticed the scar behind his ear? That’s from his father slamming him against the wall for stepping in front of him when he lunged for his little sister. 

     And that “weird girl” you never gave your time to?  Well, she’s quiet and seems to cave in on herself whenever someone comes too close.  That’s because her stepmom shoved her in the corner and screamed at her every day for being “the worst mutt of a girl who will never get anywhere in life.” 

    And you know that one teacher whose smile lights up every room and she radiates positivity. She stays late everyday making lesson plans and grading papers. However, the real reason she stays so late is because she’s petrified to go home to the husband who abuses her every night because she isn’t the perfect runway model he thought he married.  

     Every single person to walk the earth has a quirk about themselves that shields the outside world from seeing a darker part of themselves they don’t want to be known. 

     Get past the surface. Dig in. It might be hard or uncomfortable but trust me, this isn’t about you.  Ask your friends how they are doing when they start to close themselves off. Become aware of differences in someone’s personality. Be aware of what other people aren’t saying as much as what they are.

   YOU have the ability to do something for the people who are too frightened to speak up in fear of what will happen if they do.  YOU have the chance to do something for the ones who may pay the price because no one noticed they were suffering.