By Taylor Snell
Work Experience
On Oct. 15, the West Country Outreach School hosted a presentation for all the Wolf Creek School Division’s outreach schools. The Live Different Organization, including a very upbeat performance from the band Half Chance Heroes, lit up the faces of everyone in attendance. The stories they told were true to life and demonstrated funny ways of showing kindness and acceptance toward others.
The Live Different Organization is a group of young adults from all across Canada who embrace positive change, and believe that kindness changes everything. They travel from coast to coast to talk to teens about how kindness and caring for others can change people’s lives, and that each person has the ability to make change.
Through the duration of the presentation there were many different stories and videos put together by the Live Different crew. Every story touched on many issues people are faced with, and were stories that had meaningful and motivational messages. Every speaker had something new to share, and the message in each life story had something every teen or adult could relate to.
The most memorable moment for me happened when I listened to one presenter who talked about her battle in school to always keep up a popular status. To do this, she was mean and bullied this one girl who already had a poor home and family life. The teenage girl who was being bullied at school, was abused in both mental and physical ways by her father, and had no friends or positive role models in her life to talk to.
One day she broke down and no longer felt comfortable going to school. The presenter followed that by saying, “I must have hurt her badly, if she would rather stay at home where she is treated poorly, than at school where she gets bullied by me and my friends”.
That really made me think about how important it is to treat others with respect and kindness, because you never know how fast a person can break down. All people go through hard times and maybe that one vicious word or unkind look can push that person over the edge.
At one point I looked around at the audience just out of curiosity to see the reaction on people’s faces with the speaker’s heavy words about their past.
It surprised me to see that some teens were almost in tears and others showed no emotion at all. To me it’s good to hear others talk about troubled times, because it makes me feel less alone. When I’m in troubled times it’s good to know that my problems won’t last forever if I can just move on and get help, or find another suitable way of coping with stress or sadness.
For me, The ‘Live Different’ motivational presentation was an eye opener. It is inspiring to know that these people overcame the problems of their teenage and young adult years and are now doing amazing and wonderful things all across Canada and some parts of the world.
Everyone has potential to do great things and make positive change. Problems never last.
Just remember that life is a gift and that kindness really does change everything.