Living in the Shadows

A BULLYING STORY:  

Bring some light into some one's world and you might just safe a life!

Bring some light into some one's world and you might just safe a life!

Statistics show ~>75% of students are VICTIMS of cyber bullies. These bullies are very REAL and so is the terrible IMPACT on our CHILDREN. Once confined to whispers and giggles in the hallway, now bullies throw hurtful "WORDS," photos and RUMORS into cyberspace for ANY ONE to see and share. The magnitude of the humiliation causes children to withdraw from LIFE and SCHOOL. Some even resort to suicide or revenge! From texting to sexting, ONLINE POSTS to unflattering PHOTOS, more and more of our CHILDREN are getting HURT during the years when “WHAT OTHERS THINK” seems to be “the MOST IMPORTANT thing in the whole WORLD!” Learn how to protect our CHILDREN from cyber bullies (A Florida Public school Announcement)

I BELIEVE most parents are NOT aware of this until so much damage already has been done and in MANY cases till it's to late. Most kids don't realize the impact and harm they can do in someone's life by bullying them. Imagine living with the GUILT the rest of your life, because someone committed suicide and you were part of making their life so miserable that they decided it was better to NOT live than live a life being bullied? No one deserves to live with this type guilt the rest of their life!

Why am I so passionate about this? As a child I was the one every one picked on. In my young head I was thinking, I must be different, I felt like I was the ugly duckling, it was my reality and I hated it!

 I was very shy, very white, in fact much lighter skin than most kids, and now as I look back I realize I was a victim of discrimination, I was a different color than most, not to mention, taller than most kids and very skinny. And to make matters worse, my Dad had songs on the radio that the Society was not ready for. Everyone knew my Dad and I just could not hide. As a friend once said, I could not hide because both my Mom and Dad where well known. My Mom put me in Karate classes to make me tougher, so she thought she could help me. Little did she know what there were many more issues going on in my little head that just a soft sensitive sweet little girl!

The impact of being bullied had on me was devastating and it took an unbelievable many long years to heal from the hurt. I was the shyest girl I ever met. At some point in my life I believed God was punishing me for some horrible thing I must have done. But later on ...THANK GOD, at a very young age I realized there was another World, in fact TWO WORLDS! The Spiritual World and the other World.. The Spiritual World, that was already there and I embraced it from then on. A friend told me I said in Kindergarten I told them I was moving to the United States. I don't remember saying that but was it perhaps a vision of the future?  Who knows. When I was 12, I started taking some serious actions and started getting in touch with the World and had pen pals from everywhere. And so I decided to move to the bigger World and left the Island (where perhaps the mentally for some only grew as far as the Island itself) to explore the World. I moved to the GREAT BIG USA when all odds were against me. I had a plan and I was going to make it work no matter what or how. I just had to escape the bullying and suicide was for sure not an option, I loved my parents to much and of course my life. And knew there was another life and many more options that one have.

 My parents did not know but it worked. On a trip to the BIG US of A, while I was helping my Mom getting my brother in a boarding school, I asked my Dad, "if the school accepts me, would you let me stay?" Of course he did not believe they would say yes, but they did, so I stayed on a tourist visa. Yes!!! I immediately got a scholarship from the Aruba Government. Then the odds were against me again when I tried to change my status from tourist visa to student visa. The US immigration said I must go back to Aruba to apply for a student visa and could not change my status here. I cried and cried till a college friend came to the rescue. He told his parents and they knew a senator, a friend, and this great miracle happened.. I got my student visa and stayed! YES, perseverance does pay off! What a journey it has been since the first day I arrived in the Great Big USA. I married the the all American guy, lived the American Dream, until the hurricane called divorce and destroyed it all…  but that’s another story.

 Most importantly I believed a long time ago one can escape and be just fine. I thought if I escaped my bullies and moved away, started a new life, where no one knew. I would be fine and there would be no more hurt and pain, but was I so wrong. The pain, hurt, anxiety and shyness just moved with me. The only good thing was, the BULLIES did not move with me! Years later I've learned many bullies were mostly very insecure kids that did not and know how to deal with their own pain. Some have even been abused either physically or sexually. I remember my biggest bully, years later I found out he was beaten by his Dad and the Dad was an alcoholic. These kids take their pain out on other kids, and do not know how to cope or how to get help for their own sorrows. YES, perhaps it does feel better to release that pain, but take it out on someone else?.. is NOT the way!! In TODAY'S world, some bullies just do it, because it's the cool thing to do, perhaps many not realizing they are taking part of some bullying behaviors. YES, the way kids bully have changed a lot since I was little, but the DEVASTATION & HURT is still the same! Our society, families, friends need to step in everywhere and say, NO MORE lives will be lost, because of bullying. Don't let it be TO LATE ~~ I lived in the shadows of darkness and pain.

Perhaps you know someone living in the shadows take them out and show them there is light and there is another World, the OTHER TWO WORLDS or more if you choose.

 LOVE

ABC