It seems as if fights happen on a daily basis. Some of them aren’t found out about until weeks, months, or perhaps even years later, but how do they even start? From doing some research, I found out that anger and revenge are the main causes of many fights.

When revenge is the motive, the fight can get very intense, serious, and dangerous. Another cause is peer pressure. A lot of people like to cause fights and some people do not even want to fight. It can be difficult to settle a fight peacefully when there are other people present and yelling their thoughts. Rumors also cause a lot of fights. Rumors that are made can be very harmful and can cause people to want to get revenge for the rumor that was started. If you are trying to avoid the fight, some ways would be to:

• Ignore the conflict
• Confront the person verbally 
• Talk to a parent or teacher and get help

Avoiding a fight is not a form of cowardice, it is a form of maturity and self-control. The cowardly act may be to fight because of pride. I went around and asked questions of students at Lincoln to find out who started fights, who fought, what happened during the fight, what was felt while fighting, did anyone try to stop the fight, and how many fights these individuals have been in. Here are two examples of people that have been in many fights and have shared what their experience was while fighting:

Sophmore:Mele Otuhouma

• The other girl started it.
• It started because she was running her mouth about my family. I fought my ex’s girlfriend.
• We met up at a park. I confronted her then she swung so I swung back.
• I felt good beating her up to be very honest.
• Yes, my older sisters were trying to stop me.
• I’ve been in 10 fights.

Freshman:Dante Price

He started it and the reason I got into a fight from this year was because [the individual I fought] called me a “scrap” and that started beef between me, him, and his friends. I love fighting so it felt good beating him up. There was a couple of people that tried to stop me but they couldn’t. I’ve been in so many fights that I can’t even keep count.

From these discussions with these individuals, both expressed enjoying the fight. Fighting isn’t a good solution for anybody in my opinion, although I do understand that anybody would be upset if someone called you something that you are not, or if someone was disrespecting a family member. In this case, people understand why they fought, but is fighting really the solution? Fighting can have bad consequences. For example, anyone can get hurt, you or the other person can get suspended or possibly expelled, or you can even get in trouble with the police.

Is fighting really the solution? In my opinion, it is definitely not.