Troll Museum

Pictures from Tess Holliday's Instagram were used because she gets the epitome of hate and trolls. If you dont follow her- you can find her @tessholiday.

I remember my very last day of 5th grade. The boys that had made it their mission to pick on me that year had taken my lunch box from me and were playing keep away. Even the boy that I used to lovingly call Bumble Bee (he always wore black and yellow stripes) and run office errands with  got involved and eventually the lunch box broke right along with my ability to hold back tears. As if on cue, my mom was walking down the sidewalk to come pick me up for the Summer. I remember seeing her and just running into her arms and crying. Those boys had to write sentences for the rest of the day- we laughed about it in high school after apologies had been said.

My online presence is not quite big enough yet to bring a lot of "haters" but I have always been prepared for the day when it would come. I didn't know how I was going to react, but I knew eventually something would be said. It is the internet after all. It happened a couple weeks ago on Instagram when I posted the picture of me in my bathing suit. I believe the comment was, "supporter of morbid obesity." I remember reading it at a stop light as I was leaving downtown from work.

I laughed.

I skipped past crying and just laughed this time. Then I thought, "why am I not upset by this? Why doesn't this hurt more?"  I'm sure because I had been preparing myself, but I think it was mostly because I've finally learned that what someone says has less to do with me than it does with them. I did go check out their profile- it was clearly a troll account. They had few followers with pictures of every offensive topic they could think of. I thought of how much effort they were putting into causing pain or strife and I wondered how they would have reacted if they had gotten to see me laugh at them. I ended up feeling a little sorry for them.

I haven't fully decided on my "Troll Policy" yet, but I left the comment (it has since disappeared). Some bloggers like to call them out directly, others like to delete and block them and nothing is wrong with either solution but I think that I'd like to create something of a Troll Museum. You may look at them, but please don't touch. I want people to see that they do exist and that life will always find a way to present them to you, but you don't have to acknowledge them. You can have a happy existence even with them in your life.

There will be times that it gets hard to see and times it is hard not to devolve into an argument but my favor to ask from you is, as we grow, if you see hate or trolls or a differing opinion- let them be. Let them put themselves on display but you and I can outshine them with the positives. That is what we are here for after all.