The first day of eighth grade began as any other, summer was over and it was back to the treacherous eighty-minute classes, homework assignments that could be completed in a matter of seconds, and just attempting to survive the day. It was my last year of middle school and just like many others, I longed for the day to step foot into the building just a two minute walk from the school I was stuck in now.

But nothing I faced that day, could foreshadow the things that I would in the following year. As September ended and so did October I was put head on with decisions, not always making the best choice. My final year of modified soccer was over and I spent a majority of my time with girls that I considered my best friends.

That is until the day I attempted to sign onto my Myspace account on the internet. I found out later that a group of my so called friends had gone on, changed my password, and turned my page into a mockery of the person I was really was. People were leaving comments tearing me apart, and sitting there by myself with only one friend left I broke down in tears.

The weeks that followed consisted of walking down the hall having hurtful names yelled after me, nights in my room alone crying myself to sleep, and feeling abandoned by the only people I had ever known.

For weeks I could not get over the fact that they had done such a horrible thing to me. I knew that I had made some decisions that weren’t the best for me, but they had nothing to do with them. I was left feeling like it was all my fault, that I was not good enough for them, and that I would never be.

With the support from my loving, caring mother though, and the few friends that stuck by my side through it all I learned that my thoughts were far from right.

Although they had gotten many people to believe I was the person that they considered me to be, that did not matter. I was still the loving, trustworthy person I had been before. I still acted the same way and would never do anything to hurt the people I loved. I learned what takes many people years to realize, I learned that people are fake, can lie and cheat, and are not always the person you thought they were. I learned who my real friends were at an age much younger than must.

Yes, months went by and the people who had done it to me asked for my forgiveness. It was hard at first, but in those months I had gone to God to help me make it through the tough times I was facing. My youth leaders showed me that I had to forgive them in order to move on with the situation. And although I did, forgive them that is, I learned one very important thing. It is okay to forgive someone when they do something wrong, for no one is perfect, but you also remember what they did, for people can repeat their same mistakes.