My son's dark days of being treated like a 'dog' by his principal—and the choice to study abroad✨
The photo shows my son, who was treated like a dog.
He grew wings after becoming an adult😆
"Even a dog that ran wild in the countryside needs to be kept on a leash when it comes to the city?" Humans and dogs are different, Principal!
This is a snapshot of memories from when we overcame my son's dark days as an outcast at school.
It is a memento of the time we overcame my son's dark days as an outcast at school.
He transferred from a rural area in Kumamoto where Totoro might appear to a school in Tokyo during the third term of his sixth-grade year. Then, he went straight to the local public junior high school. While my son had enjoyed a carefree and fun school life at his rural school, he became a target for bullying by teachers at his Tokyo school, and the principal even went so far as to say,
"Even a dog that ran wild in the countryside needs to be kept on a leash when it comes to the city.".
My son had a strong personality and it was true that he couldn't do the same things as everyone else, but... are you just going to discard the outcasts? I was truly disappointed by the school system over and over again. I even prepared the documents myself and marched into the Legal Affairs Bureau. (I've written about this in another chapter✍️)↓
Feeling that if things continued this way, my son's personality and character would be denied and crushed, I thought long and hard and decided to send him to study abroad in New Zealand at the end of his third year of junior high.To find a pond where he could swim more like himself...But at the time, I had no money for study abroad. Moreover, for various reasons, I was in a situation where I couldn't receive any support from his father.
At the time, the funds for the company I was running were about to run out, and the stress even caused my menstrual cycle to stop (´д｀ι). But I didn't give up until the end, worked like a horse, and somehow managed to raise the funds. I remember feeling like it was a miracle at the time.
(※There are also government subsidies available for funding.)
But even after that, it was a series of trials. People tend to think of studying abroad as glamorous, but in reality, it is plain and unimaginably difficult. My son, who left his parents at just 15 years old, called me crying,"I'm so lonely, my chest hurts... Why is it so painful?"Hearing his voice, my heart felt like it was breaking. I even regretted choosing the path of studying abroad.
But there were good things, too. The local teachers always called my son "Lovely Yuya" and treated him with such affection that he was able to develop his personality.I realized that things change so much when the pond you swim in changes.
Looking at my son now, those dark days seem like a lie, but during his junior high years, when it wouldn't have been strange for him to become a school refuser... he went to school every single day without fail. Because he left to study abroad in the third term of his third year of junior high, he couldn't attend his graduation ceremony. I went to the school to pick up his certificate and album in his place, and after returning home, I opened the album alone. Then, even though he must have spent such painful junior high years, every face of his in the album was smiling, smiling✨ It was sparkling.
I hugged the album to my chest and cried. While stroking his face in the photos, I whispered, "You did a great job."Those tears were somehow sad, yet proud, and a little bit painful—a mysterious kind of tear.
Even if you become an outcast somewhere and have nowhere to belong, there is always a pond where you can swim,so it is very important not to be disappointed and to try various things at all times. I used studying abroad as one example this time, but there must be other places. And the most important thing is,I believe it is to keep believing in your child without being swayed by the evaluations of those around you.
If you have this, you will be okay no matter what happens!Even if you end up covered in mud, never let go of the hand of the one who believes in you. You can just get muddy together and cry and laugh.
And you just have to link arms and move forward in a three-legged race, saying, "If it doesn't work here, there's always over there~♪." And that is how my son and I are where we are today.
There is no need to force yourself to stay in a place
that kills your spirit‼️
◆Diary entry from December 3, 2013