Sunday, January 22, 2017

Are Your Teenaged Children Staying Happy, Safe, and Sound?

Teen years are normally described as the period of “storm and stress”. For some reason that other age groups do not easily understand, teen-aged boys and girls get cranky, uptight, and very impressionable. With all things considered about the adolescent period, parents of teenagers need to take a deep breath, get ready to face all different kinds of unexpected incidents – which are often emotionally charged – throughout their kids’ junior-high and high school years.

The most terrifying incident that could happen on high school campus would be gun violence or bully. Both gun violence and bullying against random children are mind-boggling, heartrending, and traumatic not only to children but also to their family in every way.  Today, I would like to talk about school bully, which is surreptitiously killing so many of our children both in and out of classrooms. With innumerable ways of contacting – Facebook, Twitter, Snap chat, Instagram, Cell phone Texting, etc- with one another, kids stay connected 24/7. It is good for them to exchange their feelings and thoughts at any time by means of those fast contact tools. However, quite a lot of them misuse the network for the purpose of ganging up against a random student, leaving him or her left out for no reason. Since the students bullied by the others do not always step up and speak out about the soul-shattering situation, I believe that parents or guardians of teenaged children are supposed to stay alert (if not become completely unperturbed in times of crisis) and ready to listen to them all the time. There’s no waiting for tomorrow when it comes to sparing some “vis-à-vis” moments with your children. I firmly believe that a stitch in time saves nine, especially in regards to dealing with “school drama” to save kids.

Here’s a piece of poem written by a high school student who won the first prize at “Anti-bully Campaign” (2012)

Searching for a Hero in You
By Hans Son
Have you seen the face of a lost child before?
Have you felt the torment of a loner to the core?
Who could turn away from their shout unheard?
Who would let go of their pain so absurd?
Tossed in empty space breathing different air,
A soul being chipped away by a group of hostile glare,
His hopeless eyes are hollering at me, “Are you there?”
Before another day comes that resembles his cry of yesterday,
I give him my promise that peace and harmony are already on their way.
Heartless fellows should not be the reason for his restless night.
Invisible bruises inside of him have finally come to light.
No more escaping or succumbing ahead.
Delight in raising his voice and saying goodbye to festered dread.
Words of gratitude or tears of joy are not expected of him now.
A hint of winning smile brought back to his face is to what I take a bow.
Have you seen the face of a friend pushed around before?
Have you touched his wound that is unimaginably sore?

(Copyright © Hans Son, 2016. All Rights Reserved)

Expressions
storm and stress: adolescent period (normally ranging the age of 13 through 19) during which they conflict with parents, go through mood disruptions, and risky behavior

impressionable: easily affected by something/ somebody without critical thinking

emotionally-charged: something that is deeply associated with emotions,  highly disturbing or very difficult/annoyed    e.g., emotionally-charged conversations about gun situations in America

surreptitiously: secretly and quickly (in the hope that no other people will notice)

to stay alert: to stay aware of some kind of danger

unperturbed: undisturbed/ undismayed/ poised/ untroubled

vis-à-vis:  face-to-face     e.g., vis-à-vis talk


drama: slang meaning that the atmosphere where people make a small problem seem more important or serious than it really is.   E.g., I am tired of seeing high school drama among my girl friends that make a fuss out of nothing!

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