Telephone

Have you ever played that game Telephone? You know, the one where there’s a line of like, I don’t know, maybe twenty people.

Then one person says something completely ridiculous and passes it on to the next person, and then they pass it on to the next until it finally reaches the last person in line. The only thing is, by time the thing that the first person says reaches the last person, everything they said is totally messed up and not correct at all; anything that made any sense to begin with just ends up sounding like some sort of joke to the last person. The problem? Despite how stupid and blown out of proportion that sentence might sound after it was passed on from person to person…the last person most likely ends up believing that what they heard is actually what the first person said to begin with. Sound familiar at all? It sounds like that game of Telephone just turned into a really big and completely untrue rumor. Everyone has heard a rumor…it’s inevitable.

Maybe you were walking through the halls on your way to class and as you walk by someone’s locker you can’t help but overhear their conversation about what happened to so and so last weekend; or maybe you were in the cafeteria and on the lunch line and instead of listening to weeks “lunch specials”, you’re listening to what went wrong at last week’s party. After hearing what you heard, you know it’s wrong to spread it around so you figure by just telling your close friends it won’t get very far. But, even saying the famous “don’t tell anyone” doesn’t always work when it comes to a rumor; even though you’re telling them not to pass it on, how do you know they won’t go and do the exact same thing you just did? Exactly…you don’t. What’s just as bad as spreading a rumor? Starting it…though a lot of people think just telling others what you heard is harmless because maybe it will prevent something tragic or maybe you just think its fun; it makes you just as responsible for its damage as the person who started it is. Now ask yourself this…why do people start rumors to begin with? We know they’re not true despite what our stubborn heads might tell us, we know that in the end they’re not benefitting anybody. We know that they can lead to a number of consequences that absolutely no one likes to deal with, and we know that one hundred percent of the time….

they just hurt others really deeply. Maybe you think making something up that you know is completely untrue will make you seem more “important” or maybe you want revenge on someone who may have wronged you, so you go about saying all these horrible and false things about them that you know you wouldn’t want to be said about you. Maybe you’re the one spreading it because you think others will listen to you more often if you give them interesting info. Once you think about, I mean really think about it…the answer is right in front of our eyes; rumors are started and spread because we take for granted what we have; we think by dressing up these stories, that in the end they’ll make our lives seem more glamorous and interesting. Sounds pretty shallow doesn’t it? Rumors are not the answer to your problems; they’re not the pillow to fall on when you have lost your comfort zone; they’re not the friend to rely one when you’re bored on a Friday night; they’re not the joke to laugh about when you don’t find anything else funny; they’re not the game to play when the football season is over. Most importantly…rumors are not the way to live your life when you feel as though you have nothing left holding you up.