3.2 million students are bullied every year, 160,000 kids skip school every day because of fear of harassment and/or bullying. 20-30% of those kids tell someone. I have attached a picture of a comment I received this morning by someone I know. I am not mean to this person, in fact I haven't talked to them in over a year. We went our own ways when I decided to follow Parelli natural horsemanship. Deciding to use Parelli with my horse was the best decision I have ever made. The personal growth that it has given me has been amazing. I was bullied most of my years in school starting in 1st grade. It has shaped who I am today, Parelli has gotten me through a lot of the emotional barriers bullying caused. My reason for this post is to expose the harassment I received. I purposely left their name out of it because it doesn't matter who it is. What matters is exposing it and telling someone, so hopefully other kids will follow my lead. There is something freeing about exposing the bullying. I am not a victim, I am a survivor. All the years I chose to keep it to myself and not tell anyone are over. 1 in 4 people have experienced some type of bullying in their lifetime. I have a little over 400 Facebook friends which means a little over 100 of you have experienced bullying. The problem with our society today is we feed into the drama, we love it. They have even made very successful tv shows about it. Why? Why do we as a society love the lies about other people? Who I am, who I talk to, my beliefs, my reason for moving, anything I decide to do is my decision. Yes I do publicly have my videos on YouTube and on Facebook and even have a blog where I choose to openly talk about what I choose to talk about. As first a student and now an instructor I think seeing where I was and have come with my horse is inspirational. For my future students I think it's important for them to see that I wasn't always perfect. You're right I have only been riding for 2yrs. You are also right it takes a long time to learn to be a good rider, it takes dedication, it takes hard work, the willingness to be wrong, it takes people who encourage you and believe in you and most importantly I believe in myself. Lori is one of my dearest friends and without her, I wouldn't be where I am today.
If you know anyone who has been bullied or you have been expose it, tell someone. I know it's hard because I have been there, I have been at the lowest part of my life because of things people said. And I simply chose to stop being a victim and to be a survivor. This person deserves none of my energy, so no I won't be responding. But I did want to post this for anyone else who has or may be suffering from the words of someone else. Be strong.
