Gone – flitted away,
Taken the stars from the night and the sun from the day!
Gone, and a cloud in my heart.
Alfred Tennyson
I am always so aware of being a source of inspiration and a place where my readers, my friends can come and re-energize themselves. However on October 10th, 2012 something happened that is still tearing my insides apart and for that very reason I have to write about it.
The isolation one suffers being bullied is something I can relate too, having being bullied myself as a young child. I understand the circumstances, the age of the people involved were totally different but the similarity still lied in this feeling of total isolation. Ironic isn’t it to feel So. Very. Alone. at a period in time when anyone has the whole world’s news at their fingertips and is virtually connected with everyone they know.
Being a teenager nowadays has to be more confusing than when I grew up and a lot scarier too. The whole “social media” aspect to their young lives did not exist when I was a young girl. In this particular instance, if a young teenager girl had a lapse of judgment, not only did she have to feel sorry for her actions, but on top of it she also had to suffer the heavy consequence of everyone watching and judging her on a very public platform. Such a nightmare!
So much pain in this video and so much suffering my heart aches and I wonder what could have been done to make her change her mind. As the parent of two teenagers what is my responsibility? Am I doing all of what is in my power to ensure that the dangers lurking within the virtual world we live in, stay at bay? I can not help but wonder…
I am putting Amanda Todd’s video as a conclusion to my post.
Related articles
- Amanda Todd tragedy highlights how social media makes bullying inescapable (theglobeandmail.com)
- Vancouver area teen commits suicide after telling story of being cyberbullied (o.canada.com)
Far Away In The Sunshine 
Heart wrenching on so many levels. Thank you Anyes for letting us into Amanda’s world for a moment. Hopefully it will help us spend our currency of love more freely.
LikeLike
My heart goes to her family. There a several vigils being held out all over the world for her tonight…You are right Sue, love is what we should learn to give more freely. 🙂
LikeLike
[…] you might have read last Sunday’s post was excruciatingly painful for me to write yet would have been even more painful NOT to write it. […]
LikeLike
It’s so hard to make sense of this senseless tragedy. A lovely tribute.
LikeLike
A senseless tragedy indeed, LadyFi
LikeLike
So utterly sad and senseless. Whatever we are doing to try and educate and stop it, it doesn’t seem to be working. The despair in her words is truly haunting…
We wonder too… just had our 12 year old ask for fb and we said no, not yet. Its coming though and we too wonder if we’ll be able to protect him…
LikeLike
I don’t have the words. That poor young woman. And her family. I do voluntary work with people in crisis and this is a far too common story. Heart hurting.
Thank you for posting this – the more the word is spread the better.
LikeLike
You are more than welcome, Sue. Spreading the word is one way to raise awareness to this problem and hopefully get more and more people involved. Thank you for your comment on this difficult subject
LikeLike
i am crying right now….it has only gotten worse now too…i grew up bullied…i did not mature as fast as many…a beanpole almost all the way through highschool….ugh….it is vicious…and we try educating but….and they learn it somewhere….they learn it somewhere…
LikeLike
(((Brian))) — I was bullied too — but managed to rise above it…not easy when you are 15 or at any age. Where do they learn it? At home, from peers…those who feel no sense of self have an innate need to make others feel even less than they do and somehow they “sense” a vulnerability and then go for the jugular. It’s a much needing to educate us how to stop bullying as it is teaching those who bully to have self respect and a sense of self worth. It is as old as time….and the time is now to put an end to it. xo
LikeLike
Yes you are right Brian it has gotten worse in part because of the availability of the different “social medias”. The human heart is still filled in some instances with so much negativity and I agree …they learn it somewhere…
LikeLike
In the end it’s a matter of learning to love ourselves and in doing so teaching it to our children and to everyone around us. Very cheesy I know yet very true…
LikeLike
It is more than heart breaking. Young people can be so cruel and heartless and it makes me wonder “why” — what is lacking in their own make-up, their own upbringing, their own sense of self that they could make life hell on earth for someone else? The answer? Lack of self love, perhaps lack of love from those most meant to give it, lack of respect for others and for self, lack of self worth. Those who take their own lives as what they see at such a tender time of life as the only answer? They are already vulnerable and sensitive and rip for the picking because of their own issues from life events that either have happened to them or are what they “live” (in the case of sexual preference). It is our ignorance as humans…ignorance of the important aspects in life that create most of the harsh outcomes. It is up to the rest of us to stop it when we see it happening.
On a side note to this, with regard to sexual preference or orientation — my 24 year old is attending teacher’s college at the University of Ottawa. He intends to teach high school and has already attended one workshop about gay straight alliances in schools and helping those students to feel “at home” and educating those who are ignorant and copying behaviour they may have learned at home or adopted due to peer pressure in bullying, name calling and everything of that ilk. Perhaps there is a future where we will all stand up and say “enough” and where those who are bullied feel safe enough to say to someone “help me please” and know that they will be heard and helped.
Sorry to leave such a lengthy reply Anyes. Your post was timely and heart felt and it is a very important subject. xo
LikeLike
Sherry, do not apologize for the length of your comment, ever…
What you wrote actually gave me a bit of hope, in seeing that in this University young teacher’s are being taught news ways to accept and to educate children. We all need to understand that despite all of what separates us on the outside we all are similar in the inside.
So much still needs to be done…
LikeLike