Wednesday, April 14, 2010

What Mint Taught Me About Getting Kicked in the Head

 
I took a sick day today - I laid in bed sweating and coughing, until forcing my feverish bones out of bed to make some chicken noodle soup.  After eating, I brought my laptop into bed and caught up on reading Twitter, Google Reader, and Netvibes feeds. A blog post by Victoria radio DJ: Jeremy Baker, regarding Pink Shirt Day and music bullies got me thinking about the times I've been bullied in my past. 

Jeremy is a witty guy. From his post, it seems he got pushed around a lot in middle-school, and his playing of a "TON of Dungeons & Dragons" didn't help him escape getting bullied. My D&D phase didn't last long, but going through high school I was definitely a spectacled collector geek. Comics, cards, and points programs, let's just say I thought my rat-tail hairdo and was pretty awesome.



One afternoon, I was walking with two friends by the bus hub at Thompson Park Mall in Kamloops, B.C.. There was one of my skater friends, I knew from snowboarding, sitting at the bus stop and we exchanged waves as we walked past. Before the three of us made it to the entrance of the mall, three guys who had been hanging out with my skater friend suspiciously came jogging up saying they wanted to talk to me. My two friends kept walking towards the mall while the three dudes proceeded to pressure me into giving them all of the money in my wallet, including my bus fare home. 



These dudes were real bullies. They knocked the hat off my head, and as I bent over to grab it one of them kicked me in the head three times. The first kick took the glasses off my face, so I'm lucky the second two kicks didn't keep driving the frames into my face. The three guys bravely ran away, and I took my bleeding nose and lips to the bathroom inside the mall.  

Since getting jumped, I became more concerned with my surroundings, and learned some people can be dicks to you for reasons beyond your control. I heard later that the kid who kicked was getting beaten at home on a regular basis, so in an odd way I feel sorry for him getting bullied himself.

After reading Jeremy's blog post,  I went into the back yard and picked some mint to put in boiling water: my favorite remedy for relieving coughs.. With my head with a towel, breathing in hot menthol, I thought about getting bullied and how events like this have affected my life.



Mint thrives when it is picked on, if you want a mint plant to grow stronger: cut it down to the ground. If there is any benefit to being bullied, experiencing helplessness teaches people to become stronger.  Getting kicked in the head has motivated me to learn how to defend myself, and to teach others how to defend themselves from bullies. Thanks for reading & stay safe. 

Jordan


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