Let It Stop With You

Our way of communicating is very fast nowadays, not just because of technology but also with the help of gossipers.

We cannot deny the fact that sometimes, information can be transmitted easily with the help of gossipers. It has some advantages too but, most of the time the disadvantages are way more evident.

Wherever and whenever we go, we can find those kind of people and they seems to be inescapable. We cannot escape them in a sense that every action and word coming from us will be broadcasted by gossipers to one another and we can't do anything about it, since we can't control their mouth in the first place.

Gossipers can be of any age. They are not only evident to older moms, just like what we commonly knew in our place. They could be young kids, teenagers, early adults, and yes, the elders.

I remember when there was still a face to face classes, gossipers disguised as students are everywhere. I remember when I shared a secret to one of them and that has been circulated to different classroom sections. I will not tell about that particular secret, (though it's not a secret anymore since a lot of people already knew about it) since I am still shy and embarrassed.

Another instances is when we had our performance task which is a debate. The topic of our debate back then is about territorial dispute between China and the Philippines. We are tasked to defend the Philippines and that made me happy as a leader since we had many evidences and statements that can be used against the opposing team. I am the leader of our group (section), and I did everything to prepare ourselves to that debate. When some of my classmates became lazy and not confident, I said to them as a motivation that we can do well since we have lots of evidence and proofs to be presented but, that words of mine had been taken into something negative. Someone in our group spread a gossip and that has been circulated in a wide range of students/audiences. The supposed to be motivational words became something negative because of filtered and edited parts.

It goes like this:

My statement: Be confident, we have lots of evidences and proofs and that will help us to be knowledgeable and prepared for that debate.

The gossip: Other team will never won against us because we have lots of evidences and proofs that will make us more knowledgeable and prepared than them.

There are some words that are still the same with my original statement, but the added words makes the whole thought different.

It's not my intention to pull down other team and I was just trying to motivate my classmates to be more confident but, my statement made me in trouble as it has reached our teachers too. I defended myself by telling them my original words but, I don't know if they really believe on me as their expressions showed the other way around. But, that's the least of my concerns now as I already moved on from that and I somehow learned from that situation to be careful with my words next time even though there are still some possibilities that it will happen again even if my words will be as good as it is.

From then on, my introverted self became more evident that time. My classmates always asked why am I always silent and barely talked about my personal life. They considered me as an introvert student and they even questioned me whenever I ran out of words in a casual conversation. They asked me why I never ran out of words whenever I'm presenting in front of them during reporting in class but, during casual conversation, I can't talk about something as far as what they are expecting me to.

I still talks loquaciously when I'm with my close and trusted friends and family but, being around with colleagues and non-trusted individuals, I always make sure not to talk that much especially about personal matters because I don't want it to be easily spread everywhere. At least if I told them about not so private information, I won't have to worry when it spread around.

As much as I want to fully express myself sometimes I choose to put some limitations on it even though I don't have bad intentions at all.

Aside from that, when I know something private and negative about a person, I chose to just keep it with me and never spread it with anyone else. I chose to stop the rumor with me so that I can help someone not to stain their image even more.

Just like what Eddie Garcia said (a late famous artist in the Philippines),

If you hear something bad about anyone, don't pass it on. Let it stop with you. As simple as that.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

We cannot escape the fact that everything in this world even our own words could be changed by someone when utters the second time around. There are some edited parts that make the whole point different from the original one. With that, we have to be more mindful with everything we're saying and talking with. Let's be careful with who we are interacting with especially when the topic is something private.

Gossips and rumors are everywhere but, we still have a choice not to spread those. If we heard something bad about someone that may caused great pain to them, better keep it within ourselves and not share it with others as much as possible.

We don't have to broadcast everything about what we know. There are things that are better to be kept than to be shared.

Author's Note:

I want to express my gratitude for those who are consistently supporting me everytime I'm publishing my works. To all of my old and new readers, thank you very much for always leaning your time in reading my articles. And to my sponsors, I am so grateful for having you all, I hope you are all doing fine and happy.

May God bless you always! 😇❤️

Advance Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅

Date Published: September 11, 2021

Lead Image and gif: Originally made by me using Canva