I believe in respect, tolerance for others and equality between all people. I guess that all of us understand that if all people would look the same, behave and think the same, would be interested in the same things, our world would look like a black and white photo. It wouldn‘t have enough colors and would be pale.
I want to start my story from the part when I was just five years old and my parents divorced. The reason for this divorce was that my mom had suffered abuse for so many years, so she grabbed me and we ran away together. Although I was little, I still remember everything like it had happened yesterday and I am really happy about my mom‘s brave choice. Everything that I saw and heard, however, made a huge impact on my behavior and thinking. I became quiet, shy and, of course, not self-confident about myself. I cried a lot and I missed my dad because we had such a strong bond together. Even today, telling you this story, I am still shy and not confident. As soon as I started going to school, I was one of the weirdest kids in the class. I felt really bad in that school and that was the moment when my parents decided to transfer me to another school. Everyone welcomed me way warmer than I expected and I saw that I was not the only pretty weird kid in a class- there was one boy with disabilities and I got interested. I noticed that other classmates sometimes made fun of that boy, called him names and when I was only in the second grade, I found out about bullying and the meaning of tolerance. That was the moment when I started to feel angry at those who do not respect other people. I started to hang out more with that boy with disabilities and even almost exchanged my ‘‘normal“ friends for him. Unfortunately, our friendship didn‘t last that long because he was transfered to another school. Then I became that weird, quiet kid again who faced the bullying, but now I was the victim of bullying. Like I said, I have never been confident. It was hard for me to make new friends and to get their inside jokes. I was nerd and what can I even say about sports? I attended dance classes and swimming lessons, but I have never been that sporty girl, I was afraid and I am still afraid of the balls, so it wasn‘t a good idea for me to play outside with my classmates. I was still in recovery after my parents‘ divorce and my classmates‘ rude behavior didn‘t help me at all. My mom saw that the situation was getting worse and worse, so she decided to transfer me again. Sadly, I faced bullying again- almost everybody mocked me because I was studying hard, I wasn‘t pretty enough, my shoulders were too wide because of the swimming and I wasn‘t dressing as stylish as other girls. I had suffered bullying for a few months and then I decided that I need to act like other kids- to bully. Yes, I started bullying. I started bullying even those who were not guilty at all. I was so angry that I even abandoned my studies, forgot to read books and started to make trouble for my parents. My anger usually turned into an endless sadness, however, I still felt weak and ugly in all ways. My mom started to think that it was my fault that I could not find new friends and everyone is bullying me and, of course, I started to think exactly the same. I started to believe her. But everything changed when I met a girl, my new best friend. She was the only one who motivated me not to be silent and she understood me and adviced me to talk about the bullying problem with teachers. She knew that I was not the only one with this problem because she also struggled with it. I will always be thankful to her. She made a big impact on who I am today and with her help, I understood that silence is not the way to solve our problems. That‘s the reason I am a first year journalism student at Vilnius University. I am here on purpose. My desire to talk about sore problems didn‘t vanish and my opinion and confidence strenghtened during those years. It still heats my blood up when I hear harsh words about different races, religions or other people‘s opinions that are not usually acceptable to others. I am here because I believe in respect, tolerance for others and equality between all people. This I believe. |