Rumors About You And Why You Should Ignore Them

I was amazed by this person's stories. The stories were always so colorful, sometimes awful, and many times unbelievable, but everyone always believed the rumors because of this. This person knew how to tell a good story, but he also knew exactly what others wanted to hear; gossip! I would sit in amazement, with awe and listen and watch his actions as he spoke of someone doing something crazy, wrong, or stupid. The storyteller would go from subject to subject, person to person, and always raised his voice when getting to the "good parts". This person would never speak of himself, though. His stories were always of someone else. He made many people look very bad. Now that I think of this, never once did I hear him speak one kind word about anyone he told a story about. Me, interested in why a person does certain things, always wondered "WHY" would he say such things if they weren't true. I came to the conclusion that this person was just unhappy with himself, or maybe the storyteller was jealous of the person he was speaking of. If this was correct, he was jealous of just about everyone.

I listened, laughed and enjoyed every minute of the rumors told by the storyteller. I was intrigued and wanted to hear more and more. Even though I never would want to hurt anyone or talk bad about a person myself, I kept on listening. After hearing his stories and trash talk, I would have flashbacks of my grandmother saying, “Dawn-Marie, if someone is talking bad about someone else to you, don’t you think they are talking bad about you to another person?” That made sense, but this is not all easy to remember when hearing juicy stories about someone else! Now when thinking back about the rumors by the storyteller, I feel I was just as guilty as he was since I listened and believed the lies.

I enjoyed the stories only up until one day the storyteller and myself got into an argument. I bet you know what he did then. Yes, he spread the most awful rumors about me to all the people we were mutual friends with. They were all lies, but these lies destroyed my image and reputation. This hurt, but it also made me turn red with anger and I wanted revenge. I did not want revenge to hurt him physically. I wanted revenge to hurt him how he hurt me, with rumors! If you are reading this article, please do not do take revenge. Taking revenge is totally not what to do in ANY kind of situation. My revenge on the storyteller blew up in my face big time. I forgot that he was the best storyteller and liar I had ever met. I tried spreading rumors about him, but he twisted my stories all over the place. My friends started hating me and I became depressed because of rumors. All this was my fault though. I should have been the bigger person and ignored the rumors about me, but I did not. Trying to take revenge on him was immature, and I also lost all my friends because of it.

I ended up changing my phone number because the rumors about me were so bad. There were people who I thought were my friends calling and sending me texts, calling me awful names, and threatening me etc. The rumors spread so rapidly and even spread to my family. My family questioned me about the awful things I had done. No one (except my immediate family) believed me when I told him or her the things they heard were all lies. My reputation was at its worst and I was sinking into depression because of it. The rumors eventually stopped, but only because I stopped also. I stopped spreading rumors about the storyteller, I stopped talking to people who believed the lies, and I stopped talking to my old friends who threatened me and called me awful names. I had to revamp my whole life because of my lies and the storyteller’s lies. I am not blaming it all on him, because I should have not tried to get revenge. Yes his rumors made fire, but my revenge made an explosion. I should have thought in the beginning before listening to the rumors, and of course before spreading them just as he did.

• Walk away- If you can't help but listen to a rumor when being said by someone, you can easily excuse yourself from the conversation. You might even make something up to avoid being pulled into the gossip.

• Say Something positive about the person being talked about- You can say, "I never heard that about the person, but I heard he or she is really a good friend". Turn the story around especially if the person being talked about is a friend of yours.

• Do not be afraid to tell the rumor spreader you don't like what he or she is talking about-If you can, stick up for the person who the rumors are being spread about. You can also just flat out tell the storyteller you will not listen to his or her lies.

Of course everything has an end result. Everyone makes decisions everyday. Many people make the wrong decisions, like I did when taking revenge because of the rumors about me. I cannot go back and do anything over to make the situation better. I can, however learn from my experiences. Unfortunately, the wrong decisions we make are usually the decisions, which help us in life the most. We can try our best to live by the phrase, "Treat others how you want to be treated". If I can put myself in the other person's "shoes" every time, things will be much better. Walking away, speaking up, and ignoring when it comes to lies, drama, and rumors, life will be just a little bit better for everyone.