While having a relaxing weekend in the countryside I was offered an outstanding lesson of what bullying is.
That day I walked along the country all the afternoon long for about six miles until I reached a gorgeous green park.
Then I sat down in a park bench. I wasn’t forced to stay there but I found it an extremely comfortable place while checking my Twitter stats and tweeting something interesting about the day before.
I felt the air through my hair and the scents of nature had on me a tonic effect.
That long lasting perfume brought a memory of some beautiful moments I had when I was teen, as an olfactory-evoked recall from the past.
I saw the sun smiling to my face and I could hear something through my ears in that rarefied atmosphere, I thought I heard an amazing music, a series of chords from a distant place.
I gained such a peaceful relax after a long busy week and a travel to Milan to attend an important marketing forum with Philip Kotler.
Thus, the weekend was the perfect private moment to relax and recall the lesson learnt and capitalize such knowledge and its takeaways.
Milan gave me another great opportunity to reconnect with extraordinary minds and the greatness of their presence had strengthened my willingness to do more and engage more in marketing.
But suddenly something disturbed the peaceful atmosphere of the edenic afternoon.
I could hear from distance aggressive voices, gibes and jeers arriving at me as a seamless echo.
“We don’t want to play with you” “You are not a friend of us” “You can’t play with us” “Stay apart, get lost”.
I thought I saw someone in difficulties, because there were about five young boys with a ball all together close to one another, and one guy alone, separate from the others.
But the green trees hided some details of the scene.
I couldn’t notice their gestures nor their bodies because of the blossoming cherry-tree but the five ones seemed to threaten and menace the poor boy.
“You are a loser” “We don’t want a loser to play with us, so get out of our sight”.
I was tempeted to react against them even if they were not visible to my eyes but the boy went away running towards my direction.
I stood up and began to walk toward him. I didn’t know well why I had had such immediate reaction but I knew I was right to have it.
“Can I help you? What’s the matter with you? Do you need something I can do for you? “
“ I was born to suffer. That’s my life. I was born to have no voice. Benches were built for me in order I could see the others play and live as a spectator to the others’ life. I have no more life. Well, I hadn’t even had it.”
“Nobody gave me chances. All the people use to say I’m not good enough in almost anything. Even in my family nobody trusts me.”
“Only my guitar loves me. And I love my guitar”.
“That doesn’t mean anything if you don’t like those people” – I exclaimed vigorously.
“You need the courage to overcome such problem. You have to conquer what you really need. You have to struggle stubbornly for what you want”. “Do you want to play with such people?”.
And then I said to him “Do you really need any acknowledgement from them? What merit do they have to be honoured and respected by you?
Don’t be afraid of them! You don’t deserve them! Can you do something else than staying apart in silence?”
“What do you love and are ready to struggle for? Embrace it. It’s your life.”
“Go and speak to them. Have no fear, no sense of guilt.”
“Nobody can name you “loser”. No one can put you in a corner or in a park bench.”
“You are valuable and irreplaceable. If you are ever told otherwise, do not believe it. It’s your choice to sit and see the others play and offend you. Just do it if you like it. But all you need is to be sure of yourself.”
And then: “You have to develop yourself into a person you feel proud to present to the world. Forget that it’s somehow your fault for being treated the way you currently are. If the world or the life didn’t give you any possibilities or chances, then build them by yourself.”
“Stop hanging around with people that you don’t deserve because you don’t need them in your life. Being alone is infinitely better than being with people who don’t accept you.”
“You are different. Look for something that can make yourself independent of other people’s validation.”
“Catch your dreams, follow your heart, find a purpose within yourself.”
My last words were: “Don’t suffer. There is no place for suffering in your life. You are yourself. You deserve a better life than the one you are currently forced to live.”
No question followed. I knew he was suffering but I knew that he would have been ready to be a protagonist a day in the future with his guitar and hopefully to get a multitude of fans despite the past.
I realized that, because I had heard his special guitar playing Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”, while having a rest in that unforgettable spring afternoon.
That day I discovered the auditory acuity of my ears and the power of my words.
And I envisioned a great future for the bullied boy I met and his guitar.
