Life can be tough and we haven’t heard tell of the trite tale being chimed about life being like “a bowl of cherries” in-forever as, it can indeed be quite like the saying: [that] it’s 90% how we respond to the 10% having happened.
Such is life and true for a young man named Josh Yandt of London, Ontario, who naturally, was rather withdrawn and “played well with others by himself” already, but when his father died, considering the loner that he was-he became withdrawn more than he ever was before. He would eat alone, and basically go out of his way to avoid socializing with others altogether.
This is what I know to be true:
By nature, even for those who would step up deny it, we the human condition hates to be ignored by other people but even moreover: Hate it when people who are simply okay with not needing us or including us—seem to be just fine without us while in their own world yet, are around us.
You see, there’s a reverse psychology to that (even more than what we tend to give our ‘positive’ attention to) that just won’t let some part of us not focus on what seems to not need us (even more than that we flock and clique to/with).
Such was the situation with this guy at school. He seemed to be okay with not needing to be included in their cliques and the culture of the school. According to his mom “shy” was what it was-unfortunately, something that can come across to others as rude (as, sometimes people put up rude, seeming negative or blatantly negative fronts to camouflage their shyness).
At any rate, after his father died, in addition to his sinking into being even more of the loner he was, he put up pictures of his dad in his locker (as a means to cope). He found solace in doing so.
Well…the problem with being okay with being that kind of loner (okay with playing alone), is that people turn their focus to you in negative ways and unfortunately (rather than making conversation and perhaps a new friend out of it), they tend to do what serves their hurt or anger [about your indifference or oblivion toward them]: Do mean and cryptic (mental, emotional or even physical) things to you, when often times: They just want some of your attention.
As a means for them (to cope with his indifference and oblivion to them) obviously by that focus they gave him (that I just explained) they must’ve learned that those pictures of that person in his locker meant something to him.
So what’d they do?
They ripped them down-and so the bullying began…
Obviously when you mind your own business and you’ve done a great job of creating your own space by staying out of theirs, the typical reaction is to fight fire with fire-especially considering the loss of your dad.
But what happened was a stark raving different response to the situation that ultimately led not only the other school students to like him, but look forward to him—only after the “awkward” phase of his response to their bullying caught them off guard for a while.
You see, instead of fighting them back, the student decided to be “welcoming” (literally).
He began to stand at the school doors to
