Born on 24th September 2003, Emma was a cute, funny, energetic child when she was young. Not knowing and naive towards life. At kindergarten, she loved school and always wanting to go there because she has lots of friends who were playing with her and kind to her. All of them young and still naive NOT knowing the meaning of Comparison, Negative words, Judgement and Bullying. All of them innocent.....But...things changed when Emma started primary school. She was called names like "Burger" or "AhMA" (in hokkien meaning grandmother) or winnie the pooh. She started to dislike school. I remembered the very first time I saw her crying in the car when I picked her up from school. I asked her what's wrong, she said a few boys called her names and everyone thought it was funny and started to call her names too. She became withdrawn and sad. Her attitude changed, she started to make friends online and told me she has more friends online than in the outside world. I worried, I had fear when she started to ask me the meaning of depression and how to deal with it. I knew I had to do something the next day when she told me she has a dark shadow figure in her room that looks like her but without a face. I prayed to God for help and then a "whisper" said in my mind, "Bring her to a youth group. Let her make new friends older teenager friends that understand her"....That is exactly what I did and I talked to her, listen to her and gave her motivation.
Now, she is 13 studying form one and I can say that she is happier. Yes, she still hates studying because it is too hard but she is happier. I even send her to my best friend's restaurant to help out as a waitress during school holidays and every Saturday. Now she is more grown up, wiser (can even tell me that guys on the internet are chicky and wants girls boobs or naked photo and she told me is a NO NO), she found her drawing talent and she loves it, more independent and she is AGAINST School bullying. She always defend her girl friends when the boys started to bully them. She is also stronger so she can defend...following her mother ha ha...just kidding...I thank God everyday for helping her...
School bullying is not a simple matter. I have heard so many news and youtube about bullying. Now with technologies, they can even post in youtube to shame innocent people or write facebook posts about how ugly they are or send text messages to tell them to DIE because they are USELESS. It does not only happened to children, teenagers but also to adults. But for innocent children or teenagers to go through all those is just heartbreaking. Amanda Todd was one of them. She killed herself at the age of 15 because of all this bullying...both school and cyber. You can google it to read her stories. There are more kids out there who are like Amanda Todd and it is not easy for the parents as well. Yes we can tell our kids to SUCK IT UP and Deal with it but It is not as simple as that. So, if one day your child comes up to you and tell you stuff about school, listen and try to get what they say because most of the time, some wont tell you. They might hint a bit here and there. But you can sense them when you talk and listen to them. Not many kids can stand up and be strong and do something about them being bullied. They hide it all to themselves, enduring the pain and slowly dying inside until one day they won't be able to get up anymore.
I know how it felt to be called names."UGLY", "PIG", "A PUI", "NO ONE WILL EVERY MARRY YOU" were some remarks given to me when I was young. I cried, I was sad...then I thought, why don't I be a bit more aggressive since I am "BIG and FAT" to stop them from bullying me. ha ha...was when I threw steppler at boys when they pulled my hair, hit them with a ruler when they try to disturb any of my friends...I was rough, tough and loud but I was hurt inside. No one understand what I am going through. I can't tell my parents...That is how bullying does to some one.
One day Emma came up to me and showed me a beautiful art drawing of hers. I thought it was one of her normal art or anime drawing but when I looked closer, she drew something different. She drew this...
She saw a very beautiful crafted video in youtube
To This Day Project - Shane Koyczan
Take your time to watch this video. Let your kids watch it. They are NOT Alone.
