Today is Pink Shirt Day (anti-bullying awareness day)! Bullying is a major problem in our schools, workplaces, homes, and over the Internet. Today we encourage all of you to wear a pink shirt to symbolize that we as a society will not tolerate bullying anywhere.

This years Pink Shirt Day campaign was focused online with the hashtag #PinkItForward. Similar to ‘Pay It Forward’ (the beneficiary of a good deed repaying it to others instead of to the original benefactor) the idea behind #PinkItForward was to spread positive messages across the Internet.

The students and staff of the school my sister works at came together to ‪#‎PinkItForward‬ and made a video in support of Pink Shirt Day and I wanted to share it with you for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that my son, Bryce, is 13 years old now and while he has never been a victim of bullying, I am really worried what the next school year will bring when he goes into high school. Kids can be cruel. Teenagers can be crueler. This message needs to be seen by everyone from everywhere because it’s a universal problem with a very simple universal solution. End bullying now!

The second reason is that my plans for today were to put on my pink shirt and send Bryce to school in his pink shirt to show our support for anti-bullying day. What actually happened today was even better! I ended up spending this past weekend editing this video for my sister and working really hard on it because I knew it meant a lot to the school. It had to be done perfect. They did such an incredible job filming it! So, as I was saying, what actually happened today was even better because Bryce and I went to the school and joined them in their assembly as they debuted the video. And these kids reactions, I’m telling ya, all the smiles, laughs, how they came together as a school, working for the same goals and showing their support for today, it’s just a beautiful thing to see.

Some of these kids may not realize it, but they’re going to make an impact on our world because of who they are now and what they will become.

It was just awesome and made my day! Please enjoy!

Please like and share to show that we are all working together to prevent bullying in our schools, in our communities and online. Let's make the Internet a positive place today! Thanks so much!

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya

Pink Shirt Day originated in 2007 when David Shepherd and Travis Price of Berwick, Nova Scotia bought and distributed 50 pink shirts to their school mates after a ninth grade student, Charles McNeill, was bullied for wearing a pink shirt during the first day of school. It was quoted that, “the bullies were never heard from again.”

The title of this blog pretty much says it all.

My little baby boy who was so dependant on me, that I could know what was wrong, what he needed, what he wanted, what he was thinking 48 hours before it happened, before he asked me, before he was even thinking it, is now becoming independent.

I watched him peel an orange today all by himself. To most, this is not a big deal, to me, it’s huge!

Actually, now that I think about it, he’s reached into the cabinet above the refrigerator to grab batteries to replace in his Wii remote whenever they die and put the batteries in himself. He also brings dishes from his room to the kitchen and washes his hands after eating without prompt. Independency!

Independency used to be very scary word for me. (And sometimes it is still a very scary word to me.)

All my life I have been dependant on someone else. First it was my parents, then boyfriends, then my ex husband, and now I’m all on my own. I have had to do things on my own now that I never had to do before like budgeting, paying bills, grocery shopping, the list goes on. It’s not like I didn’t know how to do them, I just didn’t need to before.

But every day I am learning more and more how to be independent and letting (attempting at least) to let Bryce be more independent (although he will always be my little baby boy.)

I think it’s important for Bryce to be more independent. He’s thirtreen years old now, going into high school (grade 9) next year, and the phrase ‘be independent’ gets tossed around every workshop, every seminar, every group, every forum, every person I’ve talked to about children with autism, sorry, teenagers with autism going to high school.

I guess we all have to learn how to peel an orange sometime, eh?

Thanks for reading,
Tanaya