It is time to speak your mind without fear

All our lives we are taught to stay seated and stay quiet. Don’t speak your mind or argue your beliefs because you could offend somebody. However, when are we going to be taught that our voice is one of the only things in this world people shouldn’t be allowed to take away from us.

My junior year, a fellow classmate got upset with me for standing my ground on my beliefs and yelled at me for being “dogmatic.” This means to be inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true. In other words, you believe you’re always right.

Upon hearing her say this I was immediately put down, until I decided for myself it was the best compliment I had ever received. To me this meant I stand so firm in my principles and beliefs and I don’t back down from them.

There comes a point where we need to be taught that our opinions cannot be silenced due to the opinions of someone else. There comes a point where we need to be taught that it is okay to scream at the top of your lungs everything you want to say.

In today’s society there is so much fear of being politically incorrect or feeling someone will think you’re ignorant that we get silenced and develop this fear of speaking up. With so many opinions being silenced we are missing out on ideas that form so many great things such as school programs, organizations, even our own country.

Not only should we encourage one another to have no fear in speaking their opinion we should also be more mindful of how we respond to one another’s opinions.

By getting upset with people for saying what they think or believe we are shutting them down and making their ideas feel unimportant or ignorant. This results in so many silenced voices.

Just think that maybe one day the person who was going to invent the first ever flying car had an epiphany in a science class but was then quickly shut down, in a harsh manner, by the class and teacher. Just because of that negative response he never spoke up again and we never got to experience the incredible things he had to offer.

If there is one thing I could encourage you to do it is to be dogmatic. Shout what you want as loud as you can. Don’t let anyone tear you down. Don’t let anyone walk all over you. Don’t let anyone silence you.