All Rowelled Up

All Rowelled Up
All Rowelled Up

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Rachel's Challenge

Have you ever been a bully to someone? Have you ever been bullied yourself?  A few months ago I did a post about bullying and how much I just hate it.  I would like to be involved in an anti-bullying program but in all honesty I haven't made time to find one.  When I heard Rachel's Challenge was coming to Broken Arrow, I knew I had to check it out.  

This past Monday I attended a community forum called Rachel's Challenge.  It's a program lead by Daryl Scott, the father of the first person killed at Columbine High School.  His daughter Rachel Scott was sitting outside during lunch at Columbine and was shot as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made their way into the school that day.  I had just turned 18 and was a senior in high school when this horrible incident took place on April 20, 1999.    I came home for lunch that day and turned the t.v. on.  All the channels kept showing these kids running from a school and it terrified me.  I had no idea what was going on or where this was happening.  I read the news as it scrolled across the bottom of the screen and I instantly felt so scared for everyone in that school.

As more news started surfacing of what was happening and why, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Eric and Dylan.  I'm not saying what they did was justified or that they had the right to.  They did not.  It was not right what they did taking people from their families.  It was made known that they were victims of bullying and return bullied people themselves.  My heart just felt heavy for them and their families and it still does.  I was glad in Daryl Scott's presentation that he never once was negative about Eric and Dylan. He simply stated that they were the shooters.

The presentation focused mostly on Rachel's life and her journals.  She was constantly writing about how she was going to change the world and wanted so much to spread kindness.  I was so impressed with the things she wrote about at her age.  She just wanted good for people and for people to be good.  There were several times I got chills up my spine with the things she wrote just days and literally minutes before she was killed.

I encourage you look into Rachel's story yourself.  I could go on and on with the things her father shared and stories from people that were changed by her just days before the shootings.  Rachel's brother, who witnessed two of his friends lose their life's that day, also is a part of the Rachel's Challenge program and I'm really looking forward to his presentation.  

This girl wanted to change the world and it's up to us to spread kindness and be a link in the chain reaction she hoped for.

"I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same."
              -Rachel Scott







I hope you join the challenge.  You never know who might need a friendly smile one day.  That may just be the day you change their life.






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