|
 Eh man! Let's Make a Difference!
After completing the presentation sessions at Craik School, there were questions and comments that I would like to follow up on. First off, it is very difficult to explain or describe a session that I do, but I'm going to try.
Some people label the presentation sessions as a 'bullying presentation.'
Immediate reaction to that comment is a negative connotation.
I do not use the term. It is much simpler and broader than that.
The presentation sessions that I developed are motivational and inspirational.
You do not leave on a high, feeling pumped but rather an internal reflection of your own life. They are totally meant to affect you and that is what creates change.
I define respect, which is to have consideration for others.
If you choose to treat people with respect, you will be treated back with it.
Respect is something earned, not given freely. The term "respect your elders", well, honestly, if the elder doesn't show respect, why should the younger?
You cannot interact with another human being without leaving an impact or an impression. To define that statement, when you walk into the post office to get the mail, you choose whether you acknowledge or ignore people that you meet along the way.
No one makes us say hello- no one makes us walk by and ignore someone. We choose what we do all the time.
Our attitude is the way we act. It doesn't matter whether we are 10 years old or 80 years old. We choose if we will be nice or perhaps be miserable to someone. No one makes us. We choose. Our attitude is either a positive one or a negative one. The difference being what it does to us on the inside.
Positive attitude doesn't stay inside of us, but negative does. As a matter of fact, positive leaves us almost as fast as it goes in. Let me explain; beginning of the day, you arrive at work, someone says to you, "you look great today", and then someone else comes up to you and says, "I appreciated your help yesterday", then your mom says, "thank you for picking up my groceries", and your boss says, "nice job".
You go home, you've been working on a project for hours, you stand back and realize you're proud of your accomplishment, then your spouse comes up to you and says, "that's the ugliest piece of junk I've ever seen." Burst your bubble? you bet! What do you remember? All the good stuff that happened prior to that incident? No, we tend to feel the jab into the heart concerning the piece of junk.
If you still disagree about positive stuff leaving us quickly, think about this-what do you remember about your wedding day? What do you remember about your graduation?
Did something pop up quickly? Think about this - I'm betting that you can give me vivid details where you were when you heard about Sept. 11?
Funny, isn't it? We can describe in detail when a life experience is from a negative texture. Not so detailed when it was a happy/positive one. Justified.
A 'bully' is a victim, a 'bystander' is a victim, and a 'victim' is a victim.
I already know-you agree with victim, and possibly a bystander. Most of you are saying to yourselves, a bully is not a victim. Yes, they are. No one does anything for no reason.
To solidify that, when you head to the bathroom, you are going there for a reason. Same as all the choices we make. We may not know why we are doing it but we are doing it because of some underlying reason.
In a situation where a child is bullying another child, you want to go deeper into that and find out why they did it. A principal said to me in a phone conversation during a follow-up, "I realized that the bully is a victim." I said, "Yes." He asked me, "How do I teach educators that?" I said, "You need to find out more. Why did they do it? Did they have something to eat today? Do you know if there are any parents around?" Unfortunately, this is a huge reality. Sometimes school is what is the safe place for kids.
You do not ever know what is going on inside someone else. You can be best friends with someone, you can even live in the same house and not know what is going on inside someone else.
Just because you had a horrible sleep; is it right to ignore someone at work when they say good morning to you? Doesn't make much sense when you think about it, but we do it.
Just because you had a car accident; does that make it right to yell at your kids or kick the cat across the room. Connection?
We are responsible for the way we treat people all the time. We need to accept responsibility for choices we make. Even though someone is younger than us, we need to treat them like they are as much of a person as we are. Not one person in this world is any better than anyone else and not one person deserves to be treated negatively, anytime or anywhere.
Let's talk about my films. Unknown Wounds does get into suicide. Some people still have this belief that if you show suicide or talk about it, someone will do it. That information is wrong. If someone has thought about suicide, they've thought about it.
You would be astounded as to the reality of that. Kids have confided in me that when they were in grade 1, they thought about suicide. I met a mom who's son was 8 years old when he attempted. If we talk about it, just talking about it can save someone's life.
Realities are realities. I have taken my suicide intervention workshop. Stats are high in Saskatchewan; from Canadian Mental Health, 10,000 people will attempt it each year and 135 will complete it. Saskatchewan has the highest rate of attempted suicide of all the provinces excluding the territories.
If you are still not convinced, think about this, a 6 year old boy or girl who never thought about smoking because no one talked about it. If you need more, ask some of your family members if they've ever thought about suicide, you would be surprised by what you hear.
Some people ask me who gets you into the schools. It's a combination of; parent advisory groups, principals, teachers, directors' of education and counselors. A lot of counselors have worked hard to get me into their Division to cover all the schools in which they work. I am not a counselor and I don't claim to be. It doesn't take a degree to know how we should be treating each other. The message that I bring is very simple, we choose how we treat each other all the time; at home, at school, at work and in the community. No one makes us put other people down or mistreat anyone in anyway.
In the last 19 months, I've presented to more than 23,000 students and adults,
travelled 60,000 KM and been to more than 100 schools across Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Eh man! Let's make a difference, planting the seed, is planting the seeds and making the difference it was meant to make. It continues to grow almost every day. There is a huge rippling effect that is happening. On this journey, I am engulfing every piece of this treasure, to witness a connection with kids who felt there was no help is a continuing inspiration to continue.
There have been many special people that I've met, kids who have attempted suicide and survived it, parents who have lost their children to it. Kids and parents who are struggling right now, because their kids are scared to go to school, the parents are worried that their child could be the next statistic. This truly is a voice for people who feel they have none. After they experience a session, they find that voice and are forever changed.
It simply is OUR ATTITUDES and how we treat each other on a day-to-day basis.
If negative things are happening to you or your child, it's not OK, so it's not OK when it's happening to someone else. I cannot stress communication enough. You need to express things to others when it hurts you and people need to let us know when we've hurt them. We need to treat each other with positive attitude and respect. I'm not at all saying that we need to like everyone, we need to respect everyone.
If anyone would like to have a further discussion, please don't hesitate to contact me.
|
