So tomorrow is pink shirt day: a day advocating to end bullying.
This day always holds a special place in my heart, as, growing up I was unfortunately exposed to some bullying. Luckily it was fairly short lived however it was at in middle school – at a very insecure time in my life and it made a lasting impact. Shockingly, I don’t think I’ve told this story to many but I feel inclined to this year for some reason.
An instance of bullying that always sticks out in my mind happened at a grade six pop and chip party. I had fairly bad acne growing up – those DAMN pre-teen pimples – but I was at this party when someone stole my cup and wrote PIMPLE in permanent marker on it. So when I came back to my cup I picked it up and everyone saw this.
There was some good in this though because, as hurtful as it was, the majority of people immediately came to MY defence and everyone was calling out the person who did this. And this was BEFORE pink-shirt day was a thing.
Since then, I’ve noticed that there are more and MORE people that are ready to stand up to bullying – and this is a huge step forward. I’ve noticed that young kids are far more accepting of differences than they used to be. There is still a LOT of work to be done but the fact that it’s now COOL to stick up to bullies is a refreshing change – and the fact that you know you’ll have allies when you do helps even more.
All it takes is ONE person willing to be on YOUR side for you to realize that the world ISN’T against you. And when that ONE turns into MANY – change is truly made.