i could tell the driver was a woman - she had her hand out the window, her red nail polish painted perfectly on her long nails, holding the cigarette she was smoking. Immediately my mind stereotyped and made a judgement on who this woman was and what kind of life she may live.

Now, don’t judge me for judging her…because as you were reading this you probably judged her too. Or now, you’ve come up with your own judgement of me.

Hmmmm…isn’t that where bullying starts? One person making an unfair judgement of another and then deciding to take it a step further by verbalising that judgement. I guess ultimately it all boils down to the fact that others don’t fit our mold in some way or another.

Maybe we should all just try, even for one week, to stop ourselves judging others when our minds start to go down that track.

We could all give it a go. After all, i know i’ve found how easily my judgements can be pretty far from the truth. Have you?

Anyways, that’s it from me for now…

SARAH // Founder // The String Movement

Bullying…?

Really. This is the 21st Century.
The age of the modern day man. I’m talking cars. i-Pods. Airplanes. Phones. Facebook :)
The age of drive-through chicken nuggets and Avatar 3D.

The age of FREEDOM.

Freedom to believe what i want, live where i want, buy what i want and listen to what i want.
The age where we stand in the wake of heroes like Martin Luther King Jnr who stood up to the injustice of being judged by the colour of his skin.
And we applauded him.

The age of freedom…REALLY?

You see back in the day, string was used all the time in everyday life. 

Think about it. Yoyo’s. Home made fishing rods. Kites. When people wrapped up a parcel to send in the mail, they finished it by tying a piece of string around it. When they boxed up their old love letters or memories, they finished it up with a piece of string.

Enter The String Movement

Bullying…?

Tie a piece of string around your wrist to show we’re not okay with it. Tie a piece of string around your wrist and say ‘It is finished!’
Shoe string.
Cotton string.
Coloured string.

Lets.do.this.

The String Movement // To disarm bullying

                                                               “a PEACE-ful resistance”

Protection. Shelter.
A source of help, relief or comfort in times of trouble.

The string we wear is not just an accessory.
It’s an invitation for the hurt & rejected - the bullied -  to find friendship & support in us.

Because we’re not ok with bullying.

Bullying started for me practically from the beginning of primary school. If you are a bit different in any way, you usually get left out.

Being left out is pretty lonely. You wonder why…what is wrong with you?

I started a new school in Year 2, and everyone thought I was in Kindergarten because I was small. The kids in my year wouldn’t let me join in at lunchtime sports because they thought I was so much smaller than them. I got pushed, tripped, punched and kicked, almost every day. I remember getting my face pushed into the dirt, and once I was spat on for no reason.

I guess it was because I was me.

I tried to walk away when i got punched, i tried to stand up and fight, but neither of these worked because everything kept on happening.

Sometimes I felt so frustrated and angry I would yell at people and get upset and cry. That just gave them something else to tease me about, and it made me angry with myself for letting them see they had upset me. At times I really hated my life and just wanted it to be over. I couldn’t see how things would ever change, or get better.

When I first started high school a girl in my class who knew me from primary school told all the new kids who I hadn’t met before all these bad rumors about me and how annoying I was, and told them not to be friends with me. Sometimes they come up to me in big groups to tell me how annoying I am and that nobody likes me.

I know it’s not true, because I do have friends, but it still hurts. And if you hear something often enough you can start to believe it.

I must be worth nothing if people treat me so terribly.

I have lied to people about things I can do or have done, because I wanted them to like me, and I didn’t think they would like me for just normal old me. But I realised that wasn’t a good plan in the end because it just made me feel like a fake. I felt so guilty like I was carrying around this heavy thing inside me all the time.

What’s the point of having friends if the person they think they are friends with isn’t even real? 

I want to be real. But I want to be liked.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Imagine if just ONE person reached out to Ryan and let him know that he matters? This is why the String Movement exists…lets be a REFUGE.

Together, lets do this.

//The String Team

Being bullied as a teenager absolutely affected my adult life.
Early in my twenties I found making friends exceptionally hard, especially with women.
I just didn’t think I was good enough to have friends.
Even now ten years after I finished high school, I’m married with four
young children and the emotional scars still affect me and the way I
do life as a wife and a mum. I find it hard to make friends with other
mums due to a lack in my self-worth and confidence, and I’m always
analyzing my actions and what I say, as I think people are judging me
and talking about me amongst themselves.

Even now as a mum, one of my greatest fears is that
my kids will be bullied…or worse, be the one to bully others.
My husband and i are passionate about this - raising our kids with a sense of self-worth and who understand the importance of disarming bullying.

———————————————————————————————————————-

You may have heard it said,
“sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.”
Truth is, they do.
Bullying is more than one nasty word in a passing moment, quickly forgotten.
It has long term lasting effects on people.
And we are not ok with it.

//The String Movement//

It’s about me, but it’s also bigger than me.

It’s about us.

About “me” in “us”.

If there were no “me”, “us” wouldn’t be “us” – it would simply be “them”.

And I would still be on the outside looking in.

So be in.

All in.

Cos we’re in.

And we’re not ok with bullying.

//The String Movement //