It's NOT a phase!

People keep saying, "Oh, anti-bullying awareness is just a phase. In the next few years they'll be on to something else." Except it's NOT a phase. It's not a trend on Twitter or the latest hot band. It's life! 56% of students in the United States have personally felt some sort of bullying at school. The worst part is that between 4th and 8th grade in particular, 90% of students are victims of bullying. Not have been victims, ARE victims! When nearly 100% of 4th through 8th graders are being bullied, that's not a "phase." That's not a trend! Children's lives depend on anti-bullying awareness, so no matter what people think of the awareness, I will never give in to their so called "phase." I will never give up my dream of changing the world or at least the lives of children around the world! Anti-bullying awareness is not a phase. It's something that needs to be in our world. It is something that I won't let die.

Video Time!

I will be creating an advertisement/PSA for End Hate! It's for an assignment at school, but the finished product will be the official face of this campaign! I'm so excited to start shooting. I want to make this extremely professional so I'm trying not to rush myself. I go home next Tuesday for Thanksgiving break, so hopefully I'll lose some stress and won't have to rush.

I apologize that I'm not posting tips about bullying yet. I'm extremely busy this semester. Hopefully next semester will be better so I can focus some more energy on keeping up with the campaign. School is the most important though. If I don't graduate, I won't have the credentials to get this off the ground.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and if I don't post by Thursday, a great Thanksgiving! :)

Some news

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Life has been pretty hectic with a back up of homework and of course the election distracting me. I have a few bits of information I thought I'd share though.

My absolutely wonderful girlfriend has brought up my campaign to one of her teachers who's also an elementary school teacher in Auburn, NH. There have been some issues with bullying there and Paigie, being the wonderful person she is, thought of me instantly! I love her so much :) I might have my first speaking "gig" soon! The thought of that is both terrifying but extremely awesome all at the same time!

As of right now I'm thinking I want to present something during National Anti-Bullying Awareness week later this month, but I haven't had time to look into doing it yet. I really want to start speaking! I get excited whenever I think about it, and the message is just so important. Bullying is wrong. It is SO wrong!

To end this I just want to end with a big, GET OUT AND VOTE!

Twitter!

On October 17, 2012 (this past Wednesday) I launched a Twitter page for the campaign! You can follow us   at @EndHateEducate! We already have some big names following us including the Human Rights Campaign and Hudson Taylor, founder of Athlete Ally! This is huge! I am crazy overjoyed to have two huge names following the campaign that was only a vision at the beginning at the school year! I will keep you all updated if and when more big names follow the account! And of course, thank you all for the support! <3

How My Brain Works

I'm sitting in Creative Writing right now, and the only thing I can think about is tonight's Generation Equality meeting, which is SNHU's LGBTQ+ alliance club on campus. Last week I really wanted to talk about the issue of bullying since this month is anti-bullying awareness month, but unfortunately, that didn't really happen.  So all day today, my brain has been wrapped around how to get everyone to listen tonight, but at the same time, I've been trying to come up with a campus wide program focused on anti-bullying. This is how my brain works. The subject of anti-bullying is always on my mind. 24/7...and that's no exaggeration!

This campaign has started to pick up momentum on Facebook with 11 new likes in the past 48 hours, but we need more. Follow us on Tumblr! Be the first to follow this blog! Like us on Facebook! I may also start a Twitter account which you could follow us at. Get connected with End Hate: Educate! so we can get end bullying in schools! Like I said, my brain is wrapped around this subject 24/7, and I need your help to spread this campaign like wildfire!

Thanks Blogger friends! <3

More Great News!

As of today, I now have a Facebook page as well as a Tumblr page for End Hate! This campaign is spreading it's wings! In no time I'll be talking to students in middle schools across New England! My next step is to get a shirt printed so I can start visually advertising on campus and in the community. Well there's not too much to report on since yesterday. Just wanted to let you know of all the places I am now! :)

Great News!

Hey all! 

So I come bearing great news! The panel I wrote about last post was such a big hit with faculty and staff, that our LGBTQ resources graduate assistant is in the works of setting up another event! This is so amazing that I can hardly contain my exclamation points! I'm very excited to have the opportunity to speak again about the very sensitive topic of sexuality. It's something that needs to be taught because obviously not everyone goes through the same sexuality experience. I will definitely back here after this next panel discussion to let you know how it went!

Yesterday

Fighting for acceptance and equality is hard. There's no doubt about that. But, yesterday my girlfriend, four of my friends, and myself participated in a panel presentation for the faculty and staff at our school, Southern New Hampshire University. Talking about the struggles we as LGBTQ students face on our campus, in front of our previous and future professors, was extremely nerve racking. It was worth it though. The praise we received after the panel created what was undoubtedly one of the greatest feelings I've ever felt. I feel as though we really made a difference, and it was great practice for future presentations I may give through this campaign. It was an amazing opportunity, and I think we really opened the eyes of the faculty/staff on this campus!

Check out this video!

In regards to my last post, the link to the video below is the video I was referring to that I made with my girlfriend. It's pretty interesting in the fact that the statistics we found surprised many of us involved in the production of it. We're aiming to combat bullying on our college campus within the next 2 years. Let me know what you think!

Check it out here!

Inspiration

So, lately I've been downloading some new music that has some really great lyrics. I've been wanting to create some sort of official video for my campaign, but unfortunately I won't start taking video classes until January at the earliest. I made a video with my girlfriend for a project of hers for school and it came out really awesome, but for the video I want to make for this campaign, I want it to be less "slideshowy" and more advanced. I just can't start it yet because I don't have the skills. But, the music keeps inspiring me to create it every time I listen to it!

Have a wonderful day bloggers! :)

Welcome!

End Hate: Educate! is the name of my future campaign to combat bullying. This blog will provide updates on how the campaign is developing, future events (which most likely won't happen for a couple more years,) and things that you random bloggers can do to combat bullying. No child deserves to be bullied! With teen suicide rates sky rocketing because of the torment they deal with at school, something NEEDS to be done to stop the bullies! That's why I'm here. I've lived through bullying, so I know what it's like to have people hate me for no reason. It sucks, to say the least. I really hope this campaign takes off smoothly because the more campaigns we have out there to combat bullying, the better chance we have at ending it!