Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Confessions of a Bullied Kid

Anyone can be a victim. Anyone can be a suspect. Or anyone can be the one in between. As we grew up to be the person that we are right now, one way or another we get to encounter someone like them. I am talking about the bullies. I am a victim and these are my confessions.

Sometimes when I look back I wonder how I grew up to be this kind of person. I remembered entering kindergarten, I was my always meek and quiet self. Thank goodness, I always have my mother to protect me. Parents always know when someone is belittling or making their children's life miserable. I remember living in a small neighborhood and there was this hyperactive kid. He likes pushing around, battling his way here and there like I was as strong as he is but I was stick thin you know. I learned to ignore him. He is just a fat, hyperactive kid who feels like he is a superhero. So I enter grade school, I had an average height but there would be girls taller than me. There is this one incident that I was quietly eating my favorite baon; pandesal with cheese. Then there is this bunch of tall girls who approached me and said I should not be eating pandesal for it is already late in the morning. I just look at her while I'm still chewing my food and just shrugged off my shoulders to her.

As you see, you may think I am a coward because I do not fight back and just totally ignore them. I did not that me not fighting would make my Mom mad at me. I went along grade school days,almost unnoticed but thankfully, I got to win some Friends. I was always the timid and quiet girl in class. I was obedient to everyone and as gullible as you think I can be. I know I am smart but I was also too nice to everyone that makes me stupid in many ways. Back in grade school I was at the school paper so we had some activities in the afternoon.
So I have this girl classmate who ask me to accompany her every time we go home after school to the jeepney stop.But one day I do not want to do it anymore so what she did to make her follow her is to snatch my umbrella. I went home without my umbrella ans as I tell the whole story to my Mom, you know she was really furious. She told me that I should not let anyone do that to me. I did not want my Mom to scold my classmate and be called a "sumbungera' but my Mom would not let this things just pass by. So the next day my classmate got some serious scolding from my Mom and I got my umbrella back. I got to bully someone too. I remembered making a boy cry back in Grade One in the middle of our class because he is making up stories and I told everyone he is lying.

The good part of being bullied is that eventually you learn to fight for yourself or just learn to accept that some people really do want to bully to see their power over somebody else. The worst part is you became a scared and meek person all your life, you lose your self-esteem and will forever be under the shadows of those bullies. Another thing is you learn to take grudges on everyone who belittles you and you take revenge just to get even. It is always either way. Either you take the good side or the evil side. There are a lot of psychological studies why someone bullies or how someone respond to bullying. They say no one will do bullying of you would not let them or the bully themselves had experience it also. On my part I do not fight back. I have mastered the response of just ignoring them. I hate fighting and besides what good will it bring me. I would just feel bad in return. I think people just have to know how to respond and not give out an abrupt reaction. It is hard to stay true to our hearts and be kind to everyone around but someday soon our kindness will change someone or something in the world we lived in.


Thursday, March 8, 2012

Making a Difference (KONY 2012)




I don't usually go on with the fad on some videos being posted on social networks. This video documentary struck the heart of many. It is gripping. It is heart wrenching. It is a mind-opener.

I was the 11,624,970th viewer of this video on YouTube. It is not only a fad that everyone talks about. It is something worth each and everyone's time. We should all take time time to see this video. Everybody is posting it and spreading the message of this documentary. It is not everyday that we opened our eyes to something as serious as this, for all we know this is just one of those videos that will be eventually forgotten and long gone inside our heads. But just like how we loved to click on many times the like button on each videos we watch that made us laugh, amaze us or made us cry; this video won't take too much of the 30 minutes of your life.

The difference it would make to our everyday lives. The emotion that will wrap inside our hearts. The thought it would create inside our heads. It is not just supporting the main cause of this documentary, the fact that we made ourselves aware of something like this is really happening can make a change. We can make a stand. I can make a stand. For all we know, there are a lot of Joseph Konys out there, but what is essential is that there are a lot like us who are willing to shape the world into a better place.