15yo View on “Togetherness” in School Will Blow You Away

It’s the 4th anniversary of 1000 Speaks, where writers and bloggers from around the world gather their voices to raise awareness, compassion, and to remind each of us that our experiences matter, and that we never know another person’s story.

Yvonne Spence began the 1,000 Speaks movement, and continues to spread mindfulness, compassion, and awareness. “I’m in!” I said when she asked about writing for the fourth anniversary, but wasn’t really sure what to write. I’ve written a lot about compassion and acceptance over the years.

One night, while not writing, I was scrolling Facebook, and saw my former neighbor’s post. She wrote that her son’s teacher had challenged students to use MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech as inspiration and write about something that’s important to each individual student. “His moved me,” she said, and posted the following, written by her 15 year old son.

This 15yo View on “Togetherness” in School Will Blow You Away!

It blew me away, especially given today’s school environments, when our little kids (or big kids) undergo safety drills for school shootings. We talk about bullying and inclusion. All of it is heartbreaking, and we have to wonder about the amount of togetherness, inclusion, and seperateness going on.

Anyway.

Here’s Connor’s essay. He’s 15 years old.

Tomorrow We Are Together

Yesterday, I walked into school with my head down and my eyes cowering to the cold tiles ahead of me. I felt my body’s every movement, tossing in the unrelenting winds of judgement and buckling under the immeasurable weight of ridicule. I dove deeper, with every step, into the dark depths of the frigid sea that inhabits the very monsters that smell the blood of vulnerability and set out to viciously consume the flesh of confidence.

With every step marked another tremor to be broadcasted through the halls calling out “easy target” to everyone in earshot. Though, it was not only I who broadcasted this ear piercing frequency that bode themself damned for destruction. It was not only I who swam the waters of hatred and drowned in the horrid screams that were calling out for help.

It was you too.

It was the person next to you.

It was your neighbor down the street.

Take everyone you know, everyone you have encountered, whom you have forgotten about. They swim in these wretched waters along with you and me. We plunge into these unforgiving waters that are laden with predators that force us to scurry and shiver like prey. We plummet passed known fathomage to find new extents of unkindness and parody. We descend deeper into these murky waters that blind us of the colors of reason and leave the residue of regret upon our skin. But the worst part of it all is that we are the monsters.

Yesterday was a dark day. A cold day. A wet day. A day where we were soaked with sadness.

But today I ask you to dry off.

Take the towel of hope and wipe off the dew of despair. Relieve yourself of the notion that there cannot be a day where hatred does not haunt us in every shadow and that to stay warm it must be while exercising the crude skill of humiliating others. Do not wade into the sea of negativity, instead, burst into the light of positivity and stay there. Shine the rays of kindness upon all others. Do not fall privy to the tendency to put others down to make yourself seem higher. Do not make yourself the predator and in return your victim the prey. Not today.

Today I have a dream. A dream forged by the mason of experience and wielded by the warrior of optimism. I dream that acceptance and respect would not be a result forced upon by animosity and disparage, but instead, a result etched by the genuine nature of benevolent deeds and authentic relationships. I dream that judgement would be made to better the abilities of others, not to wear away at the core of their character. I dream that we come together, not to face a common enemy, but to unite with a common purpose. I challenge any who are willing to accept. I challenge you to raise yourself from the depths of the dismal sea, feel the warm light of hope upon your weather-worn skin, and then together we step to a new beginning: tomorrow.

I dream of tomorrow. A place where yesterday’s nightmare becomes the horror of the past. A place where yesterday’s monsters mutate into tomorrow’s heroes. A place where yesterday’s negativity never subtends to contaminate the purity of goodness. A place where the incessant wakes of the sea do not reach, where the salty mist of antagonism does not extend, and where the searing scars of agony start to sink away.

Tomorrow is a place occupied by the warmth of confidence and the light of cordiality. A place where we embrace each other and apply the simple delicacy of sympathy and rid ourselves of the poison of apathy.

– Conner Weaver, 15 years old

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