It Gets Better project

A friend recently posted a link to this video:



This particular part moved me to tears:
"If there are 14, 15 year olds, 13, 12 year olds, out there watching this video...what I'd love you to take away from it, really is that It Gets Better.  However bad it is now, it gets better and it can get great and it can get awesome, your life can be amazing.  But you have to tough this period of it out and you have to live your life so you're around for it to get amazing and it can and it will."

I showed the video to my own 14 year old.  I pray she finds some hope and strength knowing she is not alone in struggling with the social nightmare known as high school.

The It Gets Better youtube channel includes many other moving videos.  I am so thankful there are people in this world who are willing to share their own painful stories in an effort to help others.  The light of the world shines bright in their hearts.  Check out these sites as well: Make It Better, and Week of Action, which highlights events and actions that can be taken to help youth and adults work together to make schools safer for LGBT youth right now.

Anti-bullying campaigns...let's ALL climb aboard this train

Many of my friends have shared this video on Facebook.  Ellen DeGeneres eloquently addresses some of the issues around bullying, particularly of those in the GBLTQ community.  Equally important, she includes on her show's website several links for anti-bullying sites: The Trevor Project, Angels and Doves, The National Centre for Bullying Prevention, Matthew's Place, GLSEN, STOMP Out Bullying.  Ellen ends her message with words of hope: "Things will get easier, people's minds will change, and you should be alive to see it."

I want to add that there are also several Canadian anti-bullying resources, such as Bullying Canada, Kids Help Phone, PREVNet.  And I imagine other countries have anti-bullying groups and help lines as well.

I weep for those who have been driven to such despair that suicide seemed the only option.  I pray those experiencing bullying will hold on for dear life, so that they will be alive to see things get easier.