You Can’t Like Everyone

We will meet new people for most of our lives. There is an opportunity nearly every day for people to come into our lives and take up residence. In some cases they stick around for no more than a few minutes and in other circumstances we make connections that will last a lifetime. As a young person it can often be about “who” we make friends with. A desire to be popular is not a bad thing but unfortunately for some of us it just wasn’t meant to be but that doesn’t mean we should value the friendships we had even less. However, not all experiences are going to be positive. Every single person is unique; we may have similar values or personality traits but each person is an individual. Not everyone is ever going to get along all the time. You can’t like everyone. It’s just human nature. But that doesn’t mean you need to turn into a troll or a bully like or worse than the ones we faced as children at school.

Where is this coming from? Well, if you hadn’t guessed, this is actually coming off the back of the whole Harry and Meghan debacle. I know so many people have thrown their two cents worth in without it being asked for and this is NOT me doing the same, but I do think there is something to be learnt from the whole situation.

I am not a royalist but I do really like the royal family. Sorry if you don’t but that’s just my opinion. I think the Queen is just bloody incredible and actually when she smiles she reminds me of my Nan. I don’t necessarily agree with all her decisions but I do believe she has always done what she thought was best. I have also always liked William and Kate and even though I was living in Sicily at the time, I sat down to watch their wedding with the rest of the world.

The same way, back in 1997, as a young girl of 12, I sat and watched the funeral of Princess Diana. Even as a young girl I felt it and sat and cried for the loss and for the awful image of her sons walking behind her coffin. You’d think we’d have learnt our lesson and by us I mean the nation as a whole but in particular, the media.

Right from the beginning, it would appear that the public, not all but most, did not even consider giving Meghan a chance. They took one look at her, thought ” No you’re not what we were after” and that was it, seemingly forgetting it was not us that had to marry and live with her, but HRH Prince Harry. The thing is, whether founded or unjust, we don’t have to like everyone. I’m not going to lie, after watching a few interviews with her, I wasn’t overly enamoured but my philosophy, not that it mattered in ANY way, was that if she makes him happy that is all that matters…and that was that.

Yet over the past couple of years, this poor woman has been subjected to bullying worse than that of teenage girls at school, which I simply thought was not possible. Imagine not only having untruths or perhaps the worst things you think about yourself not only said to your face but to the entire world. There permanently in print, that one day Archie and any other off spring will easily be able to find.

Jesus Christ, what is wrong with people? You have the freedom and the right as a human being to not like everyone. You will NEVER like everyone because we all have different ideas and morals as I said. However, nothing, no right of birth, no job, no status in society will ever give you the right to treat another human being so horrendously. What Meghan and in turn Harry have had to put up with; bullying, abuse, trolling, whilst being newly weds, then pregnant and then post pregnancy is simply unimaginable.

Did we learn nothing? What gives anyone the right to bring a person down in such a fashion? What did she do to any of the people who have taken it upon themselves to hate and attack her? All she did was meet a man, fall in love, get married and have a baby. He just so happened to be a prince and she just so happened to be a feminist with opinions. If she was your daughter and she met a normal man, you’d have been proud of her and trolling her would not have entered your minds.

Granted, half of the problem has been our ridiculous press who have taken it upon themselves to hound her into submission and quite frankly directly towards a nervous breakdown. You’d think killing one princess would have been enough for them but apparently not.

Harry’s speech this week, upon leaving royal duties behind, left me with tears in my eyes. It cannot have been an easy decision for him but one the press and some of the public have forced him into making. No one should be forced to choose between two loves but he has been and the British public lost.

This blog post hasn’t come out the way I planned, not that I ever plan anything. It has been much more of a word vomit than anything else;as usual. Why did I feel the need to write this? Because, whilst not on this scale, I was bullied. Horrendously so. I can remember, aged 10/11 being chased into a classroom by three children calling me Miss Piggy and oinking at me, despite being a perfectly normal size at that point. I can remember at 14, my big group of 9 or so friends turning on me, for no reason I can fathom and even having a book which they took it in turns to write horrible things in about me.

I got bullied so badly when I worked in a Wetherspoons for a year, that I ended up spiralling into a depression for several months. Words should not have so much power, but they do. Luckily, I have grown used to a lot of things and the weekly trolling messages I get on my blog don’t affect me so much anymore, but still… what’s the point?

If you see something you don’t like, move along. You don’t have to read it. Unless someone is asking for your opinion, why give it, especially if it’s just going to be cruel? Kindness is so much easier and far more rewarding than cruelty, so from someone who has been on the end of a lot of cruelty as both a child and an adult, please. Always choose kindness.

You can’t like everyone. But everyone deserves your respect.