Cole Gibsen | Life Unaware

When I was halfway through my freshman year of high school, my family moved. Walking into a new school where I knew no one was terrifying. The other students were curious the first week of my arrival, friendly in the guise of trying to figure me out. Honestly, I didn’t mind. Because worse than people faking friendliness to mask their curiosity was being alone. And having left a school where I was bullied, this was to be my fresh start. Hopefully I wouldn’t be alone anymore.

Unfortunately, the second week is when all my plans for a new start went to hell. I was sitting in class before the teacher arrived, talking to some of my classmates, when an upper classman walked over to me, flanked on both sides by her friends. There was nothing friendly about her smile. Having been bullied at my previous school, immediately my heart started pounding.

The girl folded her arm across her chest. “Do you like Troy?” she asked.

Oh thank God, I thought. This was a safe question as Troy was the name of the city I just left and missed so much. Of course I liked it. “Yes,” I answered.

Wrong answer. Wrong. Freaking. Answer.

As I would later find out, not only was Troy the name of the town I just left, but it was also the name of my new bully’s boyfriend.

Thus began the start of two years’ worth of bullying from this girl. A never ending barrage of spitballs in my hair, threats, shoves, whispers, giggles. My only reprieve came when she found herself pregnant and dropped out of school. But by then, the damage was done. Once you’re branded the weak one in the herd, the rest of the pack wants nothing to do with you. Don’t stand too close to the injured gazelle, that’s the one the lions are going to attack when they get hungry.

My sophomore year a senior asked me out and I accepted. Turns out his ex-girlfriend wasn’t over him and so began another year of bullying with an entirely new group.

I couldn’t make friends, not real ones, anyone. Because who wants to be friends with someone with a target on their back? And the bullying didn’t end when school let out. Each night I went home to a stepdad who was emotionally and verbally abusive. This lasted until my senior year when he kicked me out of the house and set my furniture and all my belongings on fire in the back yard.

Because of this, bullying is an issue I am very passionate about. That’s why I set out to write Life Unaware. I survived my years of bullying, but many other teens do not. Rachael Neblitt. Megan Meier. Alexa Berman. Jesse Logan. Leelah Alcorn. And that’s just to name a few.

So many lives have been ended far too soon. Teens that should be working at McDonalds, studying for exams, and buying prom dresses are now in the ground. It’s senseless. It’s heartbreaking. It needs to stop.

Obviously, I’m not going to change the world with a book—but what a lovely thought, right? No. I started writing LIFE UNAWARE with one goal in mind—to start a dialogue. If I can get even a few teens talking about the bullying epidemic, and forming their own plans to fight it, then I did what I set out to do.

Love to you all. You are not alone.

About LIFE UNAWARE

Regan Flay has been talking about you.

Regan Flay is on the cusp of achieving her control-freak mother's "plan" for high school success--cheerleading, student council, the Honor Society--until her life gets turned horribly, horribly upside down. Every bitchy text. Every bitchy email. Every lie, manipulation, and insult she's ever said have been printed out and taped to all the lockers in school.

Now Regan has gone from popular princess to total pariah.

The only person who even speaks to her is her former best friend's hot but socially miscreant brother, Nolan Letner. Nolan thinks he knows what Regan's going through, but what nobody knows is that Regan isn't really Little Miss Perfect. In fact, she's barely holding it together under her mom's pressure. But the consequences of Regan's fall from grace are only just beginning. Once the chain reaction starts, no one will remain untouched...

Especially Regan Flay.

About Cole Gibsen

Cole Gibsen first realized she different when, in high school, she was still reading comic books while the other girls were reading fashion magazines.

It was her love of superheroes that first inspired her to pick up a pen. Her favorite things to write about are ordinary girls who find themselves in extraordinary situations.