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 Was there ever a time when you were constantly excluded? Shunned away? Your ideas and thoughts left undermined? 
 
Teenage life is full of ups and downs, but you should always have someone by your side to help you through the lows. I’m sure a lot of us have been excluded at some point or another but have you ever considered how that may have impacted your well-being? 
 
Possible effects of being excluded 
 
Even the smallest instance of being excluded can have profound consequences. 
Suppose for a moment, that no one wants to be in your group for a competition, even though you’re actually quite good at the said activity. Now imagine you decide to go ahead and do it individually. You’ll be stuck trying to do five people’s work, all by yourself. And then whose performance will suffer more? Who's time will be taken up? 
 
This scenario not only affects your performance, but it impacts your state of mind, it may create a strong dislike for the activity, which actually has nothing to do with it at all! 
See how not being included in any group for an activity/competition/enagement can end up having such consequences that you may not have even imagined in correlation with it. 
 
Possible reasons of exclusion 
 
If you have free time and your friends are all playing a game without even asking you if you wanted to play too. 
Wouldn’t you feel neglected, or ignored? In this scenario you can’t even tell any adult that you’re being excluded because then you’ll just be called a snitch and excluded even more. 
 
The social politics of teenagers are insanely complicated with not only your personality deciding your “likeability” but your appearance, other friends, and your interests playing a huge role. If your friends see you reading, you’ll most likely be called a nerd and henceforth no one’ll want anything to do with you. 
 
If your peers feel you’re a “nerd” or something similar, then you can kiss any chance you had of hanging out with them during your free time goodbye. 
 
Possible ways to promote inclusivity 
 
Every child should belong and be accepted by their classmates and peers just the way they are. No child should be told or made to feel that they’re not wanted. 
 
Children should be accepting of each other regardless of other’s quirks or weirder traits. Every child should be made to feel welcome in any group recreation or pastime and no child should be excluded. Adults too have a responsibility to ensure all children that they’re responsible for are included by each other. 
 
Personally, I feel in a school environment/context that the buddy system is an excellent way to ensure every child is included because they’ll have to be with their buddy at all times with the school. 
We as a community should help the children who are excluded because of who they are and they should ensure that no child feels left out. 
To conclude, life as a teenager can be difficult enough as it is and children do not need to suffer mental pain as a result of being excluded or being made to feel unwanted. It is our responsibility as a global citizen to ensure that no child is made to feel unwanted. 
I beseech each and every one of you reading this to ensure you include all of your peers and ensure that none of them are excluded during any activity. 

 By Inika Tyagi MYP 4