A couple of years ago, making a college confessions page on FB became a ‘thing’. Every college in Mumbai had one. This trend had taken our city by storm. It was an anonymous platform that allowed students to spill the beans about anything and everything under the sun. You’d often find juicy gossip and dirty secrets about students, crushes and even professors…
I studied TYBA in college and didn’t have too many friends. In fact, I hardly used to talk to anyone. All I did was attend class, hangout at the canteen, read in the library and once class ended, I would head back home. Little did I know that a college confession page would turn my life upside down!
One breezy afternoon, while I was travelling to college, my phone beeped. It was a Facebook notification from my classmate. It directed me to our college’s confession page. It was about some guy proclaiming his love for me and how attractive he finds me.
Since it was anonymous, I didn’t know who this message was from. Later during the day, that post kept getting more and more attraction. People started liking and commenting on it.
I shrugged if off at first but little did I know that the next day, it would get worse. I was getting tagged in posts where people were posting things about my personal life, whereabouts and fashion sense.
It was then that I realized that I may not have many friends in college, but I was being watched. Within a few days, I had become the talk of my college.
Someone even went to the extent of scooping out intimate details about my past relationships. I started to feel threatened and grew more anxious by the day. But, what hit the final nail in the coffin was when someone started body shaming. I was picked on because people felt that my chest was too flat, I was too hairy and I looked anorexic.
Believe me, I even wrote to the admin of the page, and you know what great advice he/ she gave me? They told me to not take it personally and deal with it. I even spoke to a couple of professors, but how could they pull up anyone if their identity was anonymous, right?
Taking a deep breathe, I started chalking down my options. I knew that if I looped in my parents, things would blow out of proportion and they would inform the police, or… I could just keep mum, not let it get to me and simply cut off for a while. After much thought, I went with the second option.
After all, none of this would matter after 2 months, because once I give my third year boards, this chapter would be closed for good as well.
During those two months, I unplugged myself from this entire situation. I temporarily removed my FB account and made only small talk with people in class. Instead, I started pouring my energy into my books and hobbies. At first, it felt a bit awkward to just suddenly cut off, but it all worked out for the greater good in the end.
The less I heard, the less I reacted. They say ignorance is bliss, and I realized how true that was in this situation. And, guess what? I passed with flying colours. It was a fight or flight kind of situation. I chose flight, not because I chickened out at the end, but because, I’m bigger than this. And I realized that happiness is like a key, don’t give it up for anyone or anything – even if they trade you the moon for it!
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