Surviving bullying

Bullying is defined in Wikipedia as “the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively impose domination over others.” Though it usually occurs in school, during childhood, it should be noted that bullying can happen anytime, anywhere.

Bullying is an unwanted, aggressive behavior imposed by certain individuals seemingly bent on taking advantage of a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying could involve such scare tactics as taunts, threats and physical attacks.

(FROM LEFT) Nyoy Volante, the writer, and Sam YG were all victims of bullying

I confess, I was bullied as a kid but through God’s grace, the trauma caused by the experience have healed already. Unfortunately, I am not alone – some of our beloved celebrities were also bullied as kids.

Among them is Sam YG, one of the country’s most sought-after wedding and corporate hosts, following the success of Magic 89.9’s, “Boys Night Out.” Another is Nyoy Volante, dubbed the King of Acoustic Pop.

The two recently shared their stories with me.

“Growing up as an Indian was never easy for me,” Sam began.

“In the Philippines, Indians are stereotyped as bike-riding, ‘Bumbay’ credit collectors or ‘5-6,’ and I had to grow up with the racism and the name-calling from my classmates in Ateneo.

“Bumbay and 5-6 I can still live with, but calling you mabaho when you’re not, there’s no comeback for that. Hindi madaling maging Bumbay dito sa Pilipinas, eh,” he continued. “They won’t let me play basketball with them. I was the always the odd one out.”

Sam eventually learned how to deal with the bullying.

“Nung high school, ’yun ’yung turning point ko na, parang, titingin ka sa salamin na parang, ‘Okay, Bumbay naman talaga ko, eh, ’di ba?”

I could identify with Sam because we were bullied based on a certain stereotype: Sam for his race; me, for being a poor scholar in a rich girl’s school.

Nyoy was bullied for being small and thin.

“Burly boys from my class would remove the wire from their notebooks and strangle me with it. I had to go to school with marks in my neck for weeks. One even hit my gut with his knees. Tinuhod ako. I fell unconscious. When I woke up I was already in the school clinic,” Nyoy narrated as if everything just happened a day ago.

If anything, we all agreed that the experience brought out the best in us in the end.

“Somehow God gave me the grace to understand that there are just people who are good and some who are bad,” Nyoy quipped.

My take on bullying is that school authorities and parents should be vigilant in stopping this crime. I am so glad that Congress passed the Anti-Bullying Act of 2012 that punishes bullying in any form.

Surviving bullying

Source: Mb.com.ph (March 04, 2014 at 10:00PM)

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