So me and a bunch of friends just helped a guy be happy again.

Super long post incoming

Some context: So there's this guy in class who always seemed just tired or alone. He always had this same expressionless face everytime he entered class. He always got annoyed at jokes and would try to distant himself from everyone else. Dude doesn't even smile. His grades were not that great either. So overall he was in some mess.

So we thought of sort of cheering him up and help him get through whatever he's going through. We asked our teacher and his parents about him.

Apparently dude got bullied RELENTLESSLY in every previous school he'd gone to. This made him think that if he could just ignore everything and be invisible, he wouldn't get bullied anymore. I guess it worked, but now we felt like he's bullying himself. He had barely any friends that he could fall back on, and we found out that he sleeps way too much, probably bcos he has nothing else to do.

So we tried to get him out of the house for once. We asked his parents (who are way too busy) to allow us to take him out for a few days. Although the parents agreed immediately, the guy was hesitant. After a bit of convincing, he agreed to come.

So this was it. A mission to 'save someone from themselves' as one of my friends put it. We went out and did what every friend group usually do. Amusement parks, movies, malls, games etc. Also can I just say? Never ignore someone when they're trying to talk to you.

This was the one thing we tried to do throughout this process. To LET HIM TALK without feeling like he's interrupting us. First day went great, dude actually smiled a bit and talked to us. Then it became the second day, third, all of a sudden he was the one calling us to ask if we're going somewhere. We usually Wouldn't, but if he's starting to have the courage to ask us this, we would.

We are now happy to say that the 'dude' as I've been referring him to as throughout the whole post, has become a much better person. He now talks with everyone, his grades are (slightly) better, he doesn't keep sleeping all day, and most importantly, he likes jokes now.

Honestly, this was really something to have gone through. As someone who went through bullying myself, I know how shit it can be to fit among people

Everyone thinks that money or fame is the best thing that they can get. I am here to tell you that a group of really good friends is the greatest gift you can ever have.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk and please help someone who you think is in a similar situation.