If you're a victim of bullying - Speak up, speak out! It won't ever end, but we can stop the chaos before the battle scars damage your delicate minds and wreck havoc on your thoughts for the rest of your days. Words. Letters arranged to mean something. When those arranged letters are lobbed at you with malice and ill intent, those letters become daggers, piercing every piece of your soul. Sowing negative seeds and causing you to develope new and destructive thought patterns, shutting down and blocking out all that you ever believed was good about yourself. Here's the kicker, it only takes 1 small word to begin this downward decent into an out of control recess of your mind. It sucks. Example "fat". See how much that sucks.
I wish people could fast forward 20 years and get a small glimpse of the effects of the words they use today at the expense of other people. After that glimpse, we may just speak differently to the other people who are in the same game of life that you're in.
Passion. No Bullying. This is one area that I am extremely passionate about. Like SERIOUSLY passionate about it. I have a definite calling in this area. I know that there will be doors opened for me on this path to helping others kids stand up and prevent bullying from happening in their schools, as well as in their lives. Shoot, even adults are bullied. Just ask me!
I have been on the harsh receiving end of this all through school, my freshman year, oh my gosh, it was awful. I was bullied terribly by a fellow classmate named Chris Cooper. I wish I would have had the courage to stand up to him - I should have clocked him right in the mouth. A real jerk and a poor excuse for a human being. I was taunted daily for being "fat" and "ugly" and "poor", knocking my things off my desk on purpose and whatever other creative ways he could find to take a stab at a 14 year old girl who was scared shitless to stand up for herself. 9th grade was brutal. Finally I moved away from East Houston on over to Baytown. I hate to think of the horror that would have kept coming at me for the next 3 years of school. Ugh. Disgusting time of my life.
I am now 'older' and have 2 boys. I DARE them to be mean to ANYONE! I would be so upset about that. Then one day it happened. My youngest is kind of a headstrong child, he's quite frank with his words, and he was only 9 at the time, but he was just really mean to someone and said some things he can never take back. So now, I am the bullied mom, with a bullying child. Then we turned all that around yet again.
My oldest son has Aspergers - he's a perfect, I mean PERFECT target for being picked on. He is mild mannered, but he'll show you his teeth when he has too. He is overweight for his age and height, he's got quite the tummy on him. He acts very goofy and silly at inappropriate times. Most everyone thinks he's weird. He doesn't get jokes and doesn't realize he's being made fun of either. See, easy target. He jumped into 6th grade like he's been in 6th grade all his life. Like a fish to water. I was shocked. Then it began.
In the 1st 6 weeks of school, we had 3 incidents with him being picked on by different people. One young man (big guy) grabbed my son around the neck and shoved him to the floor. Then proceeded to taunt him again in the boys restroom asking him if he was ready for some more, so my son then runs into a stall and locks the door. He escaped from that and told the teacher. It was kinda scary to listen too.
The bottom line here is that I hate bullying, passionately. It should stop. I understand that bullies probably come from a very unhealthy home life, it's possible that they're being abused as well. Maybe they're carrying the invisible scars we can't see. Maybe they feel that in their own life that they've lost control and have the strong urge to take someone else's control away, to render another person powerless. People who bully others are extremely weak, it makes them feel better to belittle and tear down someone else. I'm no psychiatrist. Some things I know from many personal experiences. As a result of being bullied not only by schoolmates, but also by the mental and physical abuse from particular family members and those who were close to me - I am a cutter, a self-injurer. I am the only one in control of my pain from here on out. That's my coping mechanism.
As I embark on this journey, I know I will face negativity, criticism and feel defeated. I know I will have to go back to 9th grade in my world today. I will be made fun of and called names - because that's what kids do and I'm just an adult in their world. If it makes the different in one life being spared from the effects of cutting, drug abuse, alcoholism or any other addiction and even worse - suicide - then I'm all in. This is what I am supposed to do.
My goal is to speak out about it and the teach the kids to #speakdifferent to each other. To help them understand how their words IMPACT others lives. This is a new platform for me, and I am scared and nervous, but all the good that can come of this is well worth the effort. I'm coming with a message from the heart. It will take some time to build this ministry. I am ready.
#speakdifferent
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