Ramblings: Gossip

In relation to my worry about the poems at the Burns dinner I mentioned, I guessed it was time to go through my feelings on gossip properly.
I have to admit, I am bad for gossiping sometimes. Not so much for starting it, but for repeating it, but then, there wouldn't be gossip without the repeaters in the line. However, as guilty as I sometimes am, I hate gossip. I hate how something can start off as one thing, then progressively turn into something else as it goes around, a bit like a massive game of chinese whispers. I guess in the last few months, I've been less involved in gossip itself, and sitting back to watch. And now that I no longer have the want to know who likes who or who slept with who, I almost find it annoying that there is this apparent need to know the juicy details of other peoples personal lives.
I guess the reason I've been finding it annoying, is that I know that people only catch snippets of information, and if the receiver barely knows the person, or people involved, they can sometimes build a whole persona based on the information they have heard. Not even the people who start the gossip often know the whole story upon which it is based. And this can very often be hurtful to others without people realising it. How often have people been hurt that some secret they have told someone ended up no longer being a secret between two people, but rather the story of the day amongst a whole room-full of people. Certainly, in my case, though I do not say anything, as most people don't (for there is no way to deny it, or even soften the blow without seeming guilty of whatever charge has been placed on your head)the gossip spread amongst my fellow OTC-ers is very hurtful. I guess to them, it is just a story to tell, and I guess in a way it is, and amongst those who have known me throughout the time I've been there, it is little else, but these people they tell now, while being a part of the group of us that are officer cadets, are newer, and don't necessarily know me, and are forming impressions of me before they actually meet me because of the stories that are being told of a person I no longer am.
And for me, more than that, it hurts, more than they can know, because they are linked to things none of them know about, in ways none of them can imagine. Important, and sensitive subjects I will someday go into. Just as it very well could for many others too.
That's why I don't like the gossip. I guess if any of them were ever to come across this post, I would ask them to think about what they say about people, but what would be the point? Everybody gossips, and, like I said, I am guilty of it too, but that doesn't make it hurt any less. Maybe its time to speak to those I have found most guilty of doing it to me. Perhaps they need to know the reasons why I would prefer not to be talked about; go into the important and sensitive subjects it brings up. Perhaps it would make a difference, or perhaps not. I don't know, and can only hope I can pluck up the courage to try. Maybe It'll work, or maybe I'll be labeled as stupid, or having no sense of humour, but both of these terms would perhaps seem a slightly better term to place me under than those I am already getting filed under in the minds of the freshers. Everybody can develop a sense of humour, but its much more difficult to shake off preconceptions.