Story Contest 2017 #2 - Outstanding Stories (Sub-junior) » A Lesson for Life

“A Lesson for Life” is one of the outstanding stories of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2017 written by Gayathri Anilkumar, Singapore.

A Lesson for Life

It was a tiring day and I was completely worn out after the sports day practice. As the last bell rang, I felt happy as it was time to go home. I proceeded to the hall where my mother would be waiting to pick me up. However, I realised I had to commute by school bus from that day. Since my younger brother was not well my parents arranged my transport by school bus. My class teacher guided me to the bus. I was gloomy as I missed my mom. It was a minivan and there were only 8 kids in it. I sat by the window seat and smiled at my new companions. The senior girl among them behaved rudely and ordered me to leave the window seat and move to the aisle seat. I obeyed her. As I got down at my stop and waved at my new friends the senior girl turned her face away. Her rude behaviour became a routine. Travelling by bus back home became my biggest nightmare. She made all the other kids in the bus bully me and I became the silent sufferer. No one dared to disobey the senior girl.

As always, I talked about my problems to my mom and she helped me build up courage to deal with the situation. She was not ready to complain to the teacher on my behalf, instead she asked me to solve the problem myself. I felt bad as I expected my mother to either wait near the bus and scold the girl or write a note to the teacher. I knew I was totally innocent and never misbehaved with my friends in the bus. This thought gave me the courage to walk up to my teacher and express my problems. She immediately called the senior girl to her room and scolded her for her behaviour. I was happy and hoped that my bus travels will never be like before.

I was wrong because I was still bullied and isolated. I reached home crying that day. My Mom sat near me and consoled me. She told me that always in life we will not be in comfortable situations. There will be people who try to trouble us, put us down or hurt us knowingly or unknowingly. The success lies in being confident about yourself and your abilities and to ignore all the disturbances around you. She advised me to let my composure and not anger scare the bullies away.

I continued to travel in the bus but nothing hurt me anymore and my bullies soon changed their focus from me. I realised it was nothing else but my own determination which helped me get over this problem. I learnt a lesson for the rest of my life.