Cothran 1

Talaura Cothran

Professor Beadle

ENG115-8:00am-9:15am

28 September 2017

Project Space Final Draft

When we think of monsters, does the image of a monster hiding under your bed or in your

closet come to mind? Monsters are not always seen as the gruesome pictures we as humans

portray them to be. Many people have different visions of monsters when it applies to our lives

realistically. Whether we realize it or not, we must face many monsters throughout our everyday

lives. These monsters lurk around every corner awaiting to strike their next victim. These

monsters may show up unexpectedly, say for instance, at an elementary school.

Elementary schools are crucial developing stages for children. They help children to learn

their ABCs, how to multiply and divide, and how to read and write. Many adults and parents

would like to believe that an elementary school is a safe space for the children that are attending

school, but in reality, it never is.

Children develop a lot of their mannerisms through watching television, or learning from

their family members. Children develop bad habits over time, but these habits can easily be

broken by showing them right from wrong. By showing them at an early age what the effects of

bullying can have, it may put bullying to an end.

Envision you step onto your high school campus, and you rush to your locker to grab your

textbook for your first class. You try to keep your head down in fear that the monster may see

you. Unfortunately, the monster can smell you from miles away, and quickly approaches you.

These monsters may seem innocent at first, and blend in quite nicely with the rest of the crowd,
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but they are actually considered the biggest monsters on school campuses. These monsters are

better known as the bullies. These blood sucking creatures will do anything to get their way.

They will trip you purposely so that you drop your food, or even steal your homework

assignment and claim it as their own. If you dont abide by their orders, they will make up false

rumors about you, and spread it around campus. I would know, because I once too was chased by

these awful blood sucking creatures. Unfortunately, these blood sucking creatures could follow

people online, or can even be hiding in your closest friend group. These creatures dont have any

kind of tactic, they just strike whenever it is convenient for them. Their only goal in all of this is

to get everyone to be on their side of the argument, and make you the bad guy.

When a student attends school, they dont always think that they will encounter one of these

monsters. Students want to be surrounded in an environment that they feel safe in. A place where

they can trust their peers and teachers, and can be treated with respect. This trust could easily be

broken if a student does not feel as if they are safe any longer.

Schools should have a stricter no bullying policy. Schools are not doing enough to help

prevent bullying. Children should be taught at an earlier age that bullying has long term effects

on people. Many people do not understand that words leave a permanent scar on people both

mentally and physically.

The author of My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead writes that,

The principal downside to any [bully] is that the [bully] will never stop coming; the principal

downside to life is that you will never be finished with whatever it is you do (Klosterman pp.

41). Schools will never be rid of bullies, and cruelty will never cease for as long as we live.

Having this knowledge can affect a persons life in one of two ways. The first is that a person

can drown in the pain and watch their life spiral into a whirlpool of nothingness and defeat. As a
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young person with developing hormones, everything can seem like the end of the world; a bully

can take over a life and destroy it without doing much more than spouting a few unkind words.

Those words can mutate in an adolescent mind and become words that mean an end to their life

or their well-being. Some kids decide to self-harm, and others decide to take their lives all

together. All because they allowed a monstrous bully take control of their state of mind. The

second way these words can affect us is by simply letting them go. Monsters are always going to

be around, so one can teach themselves to look at them in a brighter, more positive light. A

person can decide to take charge of their own life by refusing to accept that they are less of a

human being because some unloved individual told them so. A person can determine if they will

let a monster turn them into a monster based on whether a person has the will power and the

confidence to stand up for themselves.

People can never know the butterfly effect that will occur based on the choices they

make. Author of Here be Monsters writes that, This fear of the unknown, of that future that

lies just past the horizon, has been with us always (Genoways pp. 132). The unknown will

always be terrifying because its impossible to understand something without having any

knowledge about it. One word can change a persons life forever if they allow those words to

hold that much power over them. People do this every day and the way they choose to live their

life effects everyone around them. If someone chooses a negative route for their life because a

bully at school hurt them, and they take their life, that person has inadvertently taken a life away

from every person that ever cared about them. If we do not hew to this standard, if we give into

our fear, we face the real possibility of the permanent loss of liberty (Genoways 132).

Similarly, if a person chooses to overcome their fears, the people who admire them will

recognize that and they will admire the courage it took to move past the heartache and the pain.
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No monster, big or small, can make someone feel anything that they did not allow them to feel.

At the end of the day, a persons body and soul is their own and if the world seems unforgiving

and hopeless, someone can become their own hero and save the day from that monster all by

themselves.

In summation, Klosterman exclaims that, the more you fill [the bullies] with bullets, the

more interesting they become. This can be true for both the monster and the victim. The more

hurt a bully is in their life, the more fuel they have to unleash their hatred and wrath upon the

unsuspecting students of their school yard. Meanwhile, the more a bully targets a person, the

stronger they can become. Maybe they arent receiving blows from one bully, maybe its many

(like many bullets) and though these wounds hurt, they create a story. A story to look back on in

the future for them to remind themselves that they made it out alive from that nightmare they

seemingly could not wake up from. Moving forward they can remember that they are strong and

never have to allow someone to make them feel that way ever again. When a bully hurts

someone they are also shooting bullets into themselves. Looking back on their life they will

realize the footprints they left in the sand and they may regret it and become their own monster,

like all people can. A persons life is what they make it to be and the pain can make them

stronger, better, weaker, or defeated, but each choice is their own. Anyone can overcome

anything with enough faith in themselves to believe that they are not what they are called or what

they werent called. Everyone is unique and special, even monsters have their beautiful sides that

they keep hidden from the world or maybe from themselves. There just has to be enough to

desire to carry on and never stop fighting to create the life you want to live despite the obstacles,

the bullies, the monsters, and the pain.

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Works Cited

Genoways, Ted. Here Be Monsters. Monsters: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, written by Andrew
J. Hoffman, A Macmillan Education Imprint, 2016, pp. 130-133.

Klosterman, Chuck. My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead. Monsters:
A Bedford Spotlight Reader, written by Andrew J. Hoffman, A Macmillan Education
Imprint, 2016, pp. 40-44.