A Child's Story

            It was a rainy day. The day that I watched the video that went viral. A video of a boy being bullied. Watching it was painful. I was almost screaming. I had to stop midway as my tears started to fall like crazy. I was reminded of a child. A child I very well knew. And I felt angry about that. I had forgotten about the child all along. To think that there are more children like her killed me inside. Children who faced the same thing. Children who were bullied. Children who were like her.

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She was named Autumn. She was around six. Her parents had to bring her back to their hometown after a long time being away from their families. Her parents’ jobs require the small family to move around often, resulting in Autumn’s lack of friends. She ended up growing into the most passive introverted child. And she was always being laughed at by her new friends for she had a thick foreign accent whenever she spoke. That was how she decided not to talk much anymore, not when she was out of her home.

Her first day at her new kindergarten was not very memorable. She barely remembered anything from her first day or anything about the kindergarten. Only three names. Alice, Dean and Sarah. The three names she could not forget. And she wondered too, was it because they impacted her life or it was her who couldn’t forgive.

Autumn was never a problematic child, to begin with. She was always quiet and stick to her mother whenever she went out. She made parenting easy for her parents. And so she was when she was in school. Her teachers were pleased with her. She was an obedient child who would turn in her homework in time and obey whatever her teachers asked her to do. She would make friends quietly, oh yes, she would. And Sarah was her first friend at the new kindergarten. And so, they were friends for quite a time. Until Sarah suddenly refused to talk to her.

It turned out that it was Alice and Dean’s work. The perfect duo. One could only find Dean wherever Alice was. They hated Autumn with all their heart the moment she set her foot in the kindergarten. Probably because Autumn was smarter than them and the teachers all favour her. They never made it easy for her. Sarah was not allowed to befriend her or the other children would make her an outcast too. After all, they were six. Any six-year-olds would be frightened to lose friends. And so, Autumn suddenly became an outcast.

The poor child would cry every day since then. The teachers would always help her but it only made it worse. The children would hate her more. Sometimes they would say mean things at her face. Sometimes she wasn’t allowed to play with them. And they would totally stop her from being friends again with Sarah. She was all alone after that. She kept crying at school. No one cares, the teachers were tired to aid her. She cried every day but she suddenly didn’t that one day.

She couldn’t remember why she had stopped crying. Probably because she was sick of crying. Maybe because she had graduated from kindergarten. Or perhaps Sarah was friends with her again. She just couldn’t remember. All she knew was that she never really cried much in her life.

Autumn in her later life wasn’t very different. She was still a quiet person who would make friends quietly. When she was in primary school, her classmate who was a son of her teacher hated her. Well, one could only guess what happened next. Sometimes the friendships she created last long, but sometimes they didn’t. She couldn’t care less anyway. She was tired of it anyway. She would make friends but they would suddenly stop talking to her. The same cycle kept repeating over and over again. Only that she didn’t cry anymore. Not when she didn’t have any tears left.

She wouldn’t cry but she wouldn’t laugh either. All she did was study well and went home right after school ended. Again, her teachers would favour her but they didn’t seem to understand her introverted personality. They just couldn’t understand why she would only speak when asked and very quietly on top of that. The child never raised her hand in class. She had a very low self-confidence so she was never seen speaking in front of a crowd or even playing with other children. That’s why she was never made a prefect despite her being a top pupil in her class. But to the child, none of that matters. All that matters were the fact that she never cried when she was bullied at school.

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I let out a heavy sigh as I put down my smartphone. I almost regretted watching the video as I felt disturbed after watching it. I felt sorry for the boy. I felt sorry that I couldn’t do anything to stop the bully culture. I felt sorry that there were more Autumns. I was disgusted. Autumn wouldn’t have to suppress her cries if she wasn’t bullied. Autumn would have believed more in friendships. Autumn, that child, would have lived a happier childhood. If only she wasn’t bullied.