Cheryl

This story goes back a long way for me, stretching over about 6, 7 years. 

Cheryl was a quiet, reserved girl who lived a block away from my home back in Malaysia.  I knew her since primary school, at about Standard 5 or so, the equivalent of being 11 years of age.  She was a smart girl, acing exams all around, but her genius was (in my opinion) overshadowed by her introverted personality, which made her the subject of many bullying cases and name-calling.  I'm not gonna lie; I was one of those punks who used to call her names.

I was exceptionally stupid back then, always trying to "fit in" in some twisted delusion that being in school was all about social status and that I wanted to be with the "cool kids".  This had led to me being a puppet to these said kids and always ended in me pulling pranks and doing things that I'm not proud of.  So Cheryl, if you ever see this post, and however weightless this might be, I am truly sorry for my actions as a kid.

Now, back to the story.  The both of us had completed primary school and had gone to the same secondary school.  Unfortunately, the abuse didn't stop there; with new faces comes new forms of bullying and degradation.  By now, I had matured a little and had quit being a bully altogether.  If only she got out as easily as I did.  Before she could, she had cracked.

All that piled up pressure got to her.  School had just ended and some of her delinquent classmates had followed her out of the school grounds, bringing along their verbal abuse.  Now, I wasn't there when it happened, but this was what I heard from multiple witnesses at the time that it occurred.  Cheryl decided enough was enough, and in an attempt to get away from it all, dashed out onto the main road.  A road filled with many cars of parents eager to pick their kids up from school.

One such car saw her bolt onto the street, and was too slow to react.  It ran into her, sending her flying a few meters forward.  Cheryl was hospitalized for trauma to the head, but we know that her emotional state was hampered already.  Months went by, and she finally was discharged by the hospital.  Sadly, the damage had already been done.

Last I've heard, she's been having spurts of mental breakdowns, as she made them public through Facebook.  To make matters worse, her younger sister went through the same traumatic ordeal of being everyone's verbal punching bag at the same phase in her childhood.

So if there's one thing to take away from all this, is that bullying doesn't make one stronger.  Heck, it's the complete opposite.  Bullying is for the weak, reserved for scum who cannot comprehend the power of words, nor properly channel that energy to positive things.  If you ever see someone being bullied, stand up for that person.  

Empower others, and don't you bloody dare put others down to reach a higher pedestal.  Because by the time you reached the top, it'll be that much easier to drag your sorry ass back down.  The damage done to this brilliant girl was never, ever deserving to a kind, gentle soul as hers.  And so long as this blog exists, I will not forget that.

Illuminate (Umbra Remix) - The Kite String Tangle