How ever so sorry am I; that I dared speak my mind. Did that rhyme? Oh, so sorry yet again. I hope there wasn’t too much sarcasm in the last sentence to insult you, my dears. For if my readers were offended I shan’t have lived with myself.

These thoughts run through my head as I read the comments on my Teen Ink article, which retains its place on the front page of Love/Relationships Opinions due to everyone hating it. Let’s give a little background for those of you who haven’t read the article, “Happy Endings Aren’t Real; Live With It”.

My point of view, while writing this: “You know what, I think I am giving a refreshing breath of reality. All these media people talk about happy endings and fairytales, but if you take a step into the real world, you’ll notice that people pay attention to looks, not whether you care or whatever. Sure, maybe this article exaggerates a little, but I’m sure people will enjoy the slight humor and the contrasting reality.” Was I ever wrong. The article was chosen by the editors as an opinion article to stay on the front page. I’ve, so far, had nine drastically rude comments, and I am expecting more.

The typical reader’s point of view while reading this, gathered from the comments: “Stupid name for an article. Why don’t I read it so I can get mad at the writer? And lower her self esteem too. Wow, how dare she insult my heroes Stephenie Meyer and Taylor Swift!” (gasp) “How could she say I’m not pretty enough to get a boy!” (at point where I say that I, yes, I, the writer, am an ugly nerd) “I have a boyfriend and the whole school worships me! I love guys! Guys are cute! FAIRYTALES RULE! HAPPY ENDINGS ARE REAL! Let me call her a series of rude names in my misspelled comment and pretend like she has wreaked havoc on this universe! Quick… 1 out of 5 star rating! And another one! As many as I can to ruin this author’s name!”

Is this article, or is it not, classified under ‘Opinion’? Am I not entitled to my own opinion? Were you to write an article about, say, how you like Twilight, and I had disagreed with you in such an ugly fashion, you would immediately start treating me like dirt off your shoes. It’s not a big deal, really, to me- first of all, you’re online readers and I don’t know you, and second of all, people I really do know all treat me worse (don’t say this is because I’m ‘so mean’- it’s because of my non-straight hair and my non-makeup face). However, if you get used to going off at people for having an opinion as simple as mine- that guys don’t like ugly girls, which is true- in such a horrifically rude manner, you will never get a job, and you will have a tough time making friends, I can assure you. Fast-forward ten years (I’m guessing here, people, don’t get insulted) when you walk into your first serious job and the boss makes a comment on how he doesn’t like some fashion company you mildly think is half-decent, and you start yelling at him for being a disgrace to this universe. Um, bye-bye new job. And how about things more important than money, like friends. If you talk like this to people you’re not going to get any friends.

I express ‘radical’ opinions online all the time, dangerous comments like ‘Justin Bieber sings like a girl’ and mean, mean things like ‘Great comment, but you spelled a word wrong- just pointing it out!’ It just goes to show what little crybabies we all are today that these comments- written online! By someone you don’t even know!- hurt us so deeply. Get over yourselves! I don’t pretend like I don’t get a little insulted if someone shoots off their mouth at me the way about nine people did at my article, but I’m not going to cry myself to sleep over that. No! I know my writing is good, so I don’t care. In the same way, when you read that article, I want your comment to be like this: “Even though I don’t agree with you, you are entitled to your own opinion. I personally love Taylor Swift and Stephenie Meyer, but it’s OK if you don’t.” And then maybe something on my writing style- that is, you know, why I posted this here- not to get lots of shouting and rudeness, but to get feedback on my actual writing.

There are so many people out there with much, much worse opinions than mine. Not that opinions are ever wrong, but the opinion that people should be murdered for their religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation is not as nice as the opinion that happy endings are a media joke. Save your shouting for these people.

It got to the point where I had to post warnings every time I wrote something. On a social networking site I used to go on before the school ultra-blocked our laptops, I once replied to a girl surprised at Kristen Stewart’s newest romance, “Celebrities are insane. You never know what they’ll do next. I just like watching them from over here in the Normal People side of the world.” I got a horrified response from some person I didn’t know who yelled at me for daring to say that I was normal. “Is anyone normal, in this world of ours? You’re probably a closet weird person. You just keep on pretending that you’re normal, because one day weird nerds will rule the world, and your insulting them won’t help.” People, I am the farthest thing from normal there is. If I were normal, I would not be spending hours editing a novel and listening to the song ‘Hamster on a Piano, Eating Popcorn.’ Okay?

So when I wrote a comment that I thought Ke$ha made herself look dumb in an interview, and I’d added that I liked her song TiK ToK and I was 13, I had to write at the end, “Please do NOT judge this comment by the words ‘I do like TiK ToK’ and ‘I am 13’. [There’s a lot of age discrimination on that site.] And please can you use your functioning brain cells to reply to this?” Needless to say, I was talking to the wrong audience- I was soon attacked by a rabid Ke$ha fan. I am a Ke$ha fan myself! I love Ke$ha! She is an amazing singer! I just didn’t like one stupid interview she did, that’s ALL!

Is it maybe the mask of the Internet that draws us in to speak like this? I know that most of those people wouldn’t dare talk like that even to a nerd like me if they were meeting them face-to-face. It’s rude, plain and simple. Maybe the fact that you can’t see them and they can’t see you makes you feel invincible to say whatever you want. In a way, this is a form of cyberbullying- only ten times EASIER than it, because you don’t know them personally, so it’s harder for the ‘victim’ to track you down. Now, like I said, I usually just laugh at someone who wastes their time with flames, but people who get offended quickly- of which there are too many- will not find your comments so amusing. Just because you are hidden behind a screen, it doesn’t mean you are hidden forever.

P.S. Could you please use your functioning brain cells to reply to my surely wrong opinion?