Hello Students and Teachers,
Today I will talk about a very important subject, which is : LOVING YOURSELVES ENOUGH!
All through your lives you will encounter all sorts of people: people who are kind, people who are not, people who mean well and people who do not; people you can trust and people you cannot trust, people who will do good things for you and people who will not.
While you get old enough to know what sort of people you are dealing with you should rely on the experience of your parents, and of the people who really love and care for you.
You will always find a bully, who is ready to make fun of you; or a classmate who is not empathetic to your needs and feelings.
You have to love yourself enough to be strong, to not give in to these person’s insults, to be strong enough to ignore them or to ask them to stop being disrespectful.
You have to love yourself enough to do good things for yourself, actions that will make you a better human being, and to say words that will not harm or offend anyone else.
You have to love yourself enough to avoid talking to strangers, because if you do not know someone you don’t know if they are going to act in a kind way towards you or if they are going to take advantage of you.
You have to love yourself enough to listen to what your parents and teachers tell you that is good for you, and be strong enough to resist temptation.
There will always be classmates or people who will try to make you do things that you know are wrong. Resist! Resit with all your might! And if you find that it is very difficult to resist, tell your parents or teachers immediately, but never, never do something that you know to be wrong or hurtful.
Never, ever, accept the invitation of a stranger or even people you might know casually, who tell you they will give you candy or toys or a puppy if you go with them. Never go with anyone except your parents or a person they give you permission to go with.
If you are in a public place, like in a movie theater, or a park, or the beach, for example, and someone touches you, immediately move away and tell your parents or an adult.
You should always take care of yourselves. Always love yourselves enough to do it.
We are living in difficult times, this is why you should be especially careful and respectful of your parent’s and teacher’s rules.
People who love you enough want you to be safe and happy.
So remember, love yourselves enough to take good care of yourselves and to think before you react.
I know this is especially difficult. Most of the time we just react to other people’s words or actions. But it is far better to think before we react. This will give you time to think if what you will say is either helpful or kind; it will give you time to think if what you are about to do is good for you or not.
A long time ago, when I was in the university and I was just 16 years old there was a girl in our group who loved to make other people feel bad. She used to make fun of every other girl and laugh at them. When she saw me she would laugh at me and say things that she thought would make me react angrily. But I always resisted. Never reacted. On the contrary, I always ignored her. Eventually she got tired of not getting a reaction from me and left me alone.
Many years afterwards, we met at a party and she came to me and told me: “Lilian, I have always admired you, because of all the girls I teased and made fun of, you were the only one who ignored me. I am sorry.”
So many times it is better to ignore the bully, unless they are doing physical harm to you, then you should tell and adult immediately.
There is a saying by a great german author and philosopher who lived many years ago, his name was Friedrich Nietzsche, he said: “Whatever does not destroy you, makes you stronger.”
This means that all that you live through, the sad and difficult times, will make a better person out of you.
So always love yourselves enough to resist what is not good for you and to do what will make you a better human being.
