"Let's speak up."

Words are powerful. 

I wish we would be more aware of that. I wish we would think about the power of words more often. The words leaving our lips can have great impacts. They can encourage, make us feel good, but can also plant seeds of misconception or stereotypes in the minds of ourselves and others.

Words can make us feel upset or frustrated sometimes. Words are powerful.

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We just celebrated international women's day a week ago. Just a few days later I overheard something that made me feel frustrated. I was at a playground, where a group of little boys were running around, chasing after a ball. They were so focused on the ball, that they didn't realize they were running into the swings. A nanny who pushed a little one on the swing shouted: 'Watch out!  You almost got kicked by a two year old girl, that would've been embarrassing.'

I couldn't believe she said that. She as a young woman. She should know that these words could have a huge impact on these little kids. This is exactly how stereotypes are created. I thought about talking to her, telling her that what she just said could create negative stereotypes in these kids minds, but because I was feeling extremely frustrated and didn't know if I could control my emotions I decided not to talk to her. Now after reflecting on this situation again, I know that I did a mistake. I know I was wrong. I should've stood up for what I believe in. I should've talked to her. Now I know that next time I will do it differently. Whenever I face a situation like this again, I'm going to take a deep breath and talk. I believe we all should do that. If we see something that is wrong, we should take action and speak up, after we got our emotions under control. 

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Words are powerful, let's choose them wisely and use them for the good.

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