Blogging Challenge #6: What Lies Beneath

It was the beginning of elementary school and I was in the line up for lunch when I felt a pinch in my butt. I turned around to see a grinning girl few people behind me. I wish I could say it was a friendly grin but it was, in fact, much more malignant than friendly.

That was the start of my 6 year turmoil with said girl.

During the six years of elementary school, she was in control over how I felt, what I did, who I spent time with and where I went. The nightmare got so bad that at times I was afraid of going to school, not knowing what kind of a day she was having today – good or bad – so I would take out a thermometer, hold it up against a hot lightbulb and tell my mom I have fever and therefore cannot go to school.

As children we are, unfortunately, not able to understand and process things the same way we are as adults.

And I have since come to understand that (with the words of the wise Eleanor Roosevelt)

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

The experience of being bullied has been one of the most influential events of my life. It began as a dark cloud hanging over my head but the more I processed it, the more I came to see the gifts it presented for me.

  • It has made me a very sensitive and observant person
  • It has taught me how to recognise true friendship and care in people
  • It has given me strength to push through boundaries of my own and of those around me
  • It has allowed me to connect to something deep within me and feel feelings strongly and deeply
  • It has taught me that nothing is set in stone and I, myself, am a work-in-progress, always able to evolve and grow
  • And more than anything, it has taught me that I can push through and survive anything. Because we are precisely as capable as we think we are.

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t; you are right. -Henry Ford

And that concludes today’s Feel Good Blogging Challenge. I sincerely hope you are all having a wonderful weekend with your loved ones, feeling the laughter in your stomach and the love in your heart.

Until next time lovelies,
Thank you for being so amazing.

xoxo Erika

My self portrait in Vancouver, BC - Studio Metsä Photography

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