Boston

Know the song Boston by Augustana? It goes like this:

She said, I think I'll go to Boston
I think I'll start a new life
I think I'll start it over, where no one knows my name
...

So why write something about this song? It hit me, because years ago I decided to leave my California - my old school. It is the soundtrack of my old plight.

People can be cruel, children most of all. It's because they do not understand. Others who don't even try to understand can be evil. Society isolates those who are different, those who do not conform to their standards. Bullying is a world issue right now. Laws against it have been written, but in my childhood years the only law was "What can't kill you will only make you stronger" - let it be known bullying has claimed hundreds of lives of young children and teens.

I'm not ashamed to say I was bullied. Bullying robed me of half my childhood. If you look at me now you won't believe me. I'm strong and big, always have been, but bullying comes in many forms. I'm not going to go into the details of how or why I was bullied, that's not why I write. I write to spark a change, to enlighten.

I was bullied in my elementary years, the early formative years where children are supposed to learn how to socialize. I had so few friends, my mother was constantly worried about that. Of my siblings I was the only underachiever, I was often called stupid. Don't get me wrong. I was a year younger than almost everyone in class. My grades were average. I ranked 10th once and that was it. I hated school. You see it wasn't just the children, some teachers choose to take the bully's side. I talked to a teacher about it once, she said "How dare you accuse an honor student and a teacher's son?" There were also a few times when teachers scolded me for crying, instead of the other students. Children have an excuse of not understanding, adults have none. They just choose not to. What about you?

My elementary school was a private Catholic school and, back then, to me public schools were characterized by riots and mangy kids. A clean, very structured Catholic school was my California. Changing to a public school was scary for me. PUP was my Boston. I knew I needed good grades to get in so in 6th grade I had to excel. I ranked 2nd in class though I didn't graduate with honors (a really long story) and I passed the entrance examination to the PUP Laboratory High School. I guess it was my cheerful disposition and the thought of a new life that made me excel in that last year. I graduated elementary full of joy. 

Adapting to a new environment is hard. My first years in a new school was gruesome, but I did it. I had friends, a lot of them. I was among the top half of our batch when I was a sophomore, ranked 14th in my junior year and graduated 7th in academic ranking in one of the popular high schools in Manila. Numerous universities vied for my enlistment, but I still went to PUP to get a college education. I graduated among the top of the class, known as the hardware queen and the walk-in quiz bee finalist. Moving, or rather changing schools worked for me. I can say I am successful and can hold my head up high now, though I still can't hold a very good conversation in person nor can I say how I really feel. The things I write I cannot say in person. The damage has been done.

In high school I was not judged by the world. My teachers thought me how to think outside the box and accept my individuality. They encouraged me to view the world as a canvass, to do what I had to do to change it. There is no excuse for bullying.  I'm surprised that parents dismiss it.  A child should be proud of who and what he is. If this did not reach you or if I fail to change this generation I will change the next. My children will never be forced to run to a place where no one knows their name just to live as they are, neither will they be allowed to degrade a fellow human being for his individuality. Hitler was bullied by his father. He became the biggest bully killing millions. Are you going to raise Hitler?