Sunday, October 24, 2010

Keeping your balls submerged

Take 12 minutes out of your life to watch this.

No really. Especially if you were bullied (which is what it is really about, not homosexuality) at school. Or you're a teenager. Or you work with teenagers.

In part, this clip made me anxious about last Friday at youth group.

That night i began to tell a similar story. The story of when the issues that i was struggling with erupted to the surface at a school dance (it was either in year 8 or 9, i don't even remember anymore).

The day after i was given some advice about coping with what life throws at you.

Imagine that life is like standing in a wait deep wading pool. Life throws issues at you like dodge balls. You can either process them, or hold onto them.

If you hold onto them then you need to push them under the surface of the water.

With just one ball this isn't too difficult.

But life will eventually throw another... And you have the same choice as before.

Deal with the issue or push it under the surface of the water.

Over time, you can get to the point where controlling the balls under the surface will be too much (if you've ever tried to keep a stack of pool noodles submerged them you'll know what the outcome will be).

Eventually, the balls will rush to the surface in a violent explosion.

My explosion happened at a school dance and a spiked drink.

On Friday night we then had a school counsellor talk about what her job is and what kids could expect if they, or any of their friends, ever went to see someone in her position.

It was an important message to give. Even if it did make me anxious.

1 comment:

Claire said...

A very powerful video. Amazing the courage it took for this guy to stand up and speak out.
On a lighter note, the title of this post makes me giggle- it's bad I know, but...