The purpose of my PHREE (Peers Helping Reaffirm, Educate, and Empower) meeting tonight was for girls to workshop the monologues that they had written about survival, loss, love or pain. I sat down and waited for the workshop to begin and to hear the suggestions the leader had for the writing the girls had done. I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary. I wasn’t expecting eloquently given speeches. I was wrong. The first girl talked about the boys in her life that started out as her friends and then turned into abusers or users. The next girl explicitly retold the story of how she had been sexually abused and how therapy was helping her recover from the trauma. The third girl read a beautiful poem she had written that was about how she had been molested as a child. As each girl read I was awed by their courage, "How can they vocalize such personal things?" I though. As the tears in my eyes began to go away, I looked at each of the girls and saw something in them that I hadn't seen before: incredible strength.
Chapter three of the textbook gives tips on how to get over nerves when speaking in public. When I read it, I thought about the sweaty-palms and shaky knees I get when I step up in front of a class to speak about impersonal things like books. Now, I think about those three girls and how they were able to speak about such personal issues without any sign of nerves and realize that maybe speaking isn't so scary. It just takes a little bit of courage.
I really like the structure of this post. I like how you told a story, and then followed it up with an explanation as to how it related to your topic of the week. I give those girls props for getting up there and talking about such personal things, because I know I have problems with public speaking as well and to go so far as talking personally, for me, would be a complete disaster. Thanks for sharing such a great story and giving us all a little more strength! Nice job.
ReplyDeleteWow! I wasn't even at this meeting, and I'm so amazed at the courage these girls had! Thank you so much for sharing, as we all need to learn that sometimes sharing our hurts and pains will only make us a stronger person!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this a lot. I think it really shows people your point, especially by showing that those girls who have been through so much can do it with so much courage. I think you make a really good point about just needing courage to do it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you listened to their stories and retold them for them. I can completely relate to this blog I enjoyed reading it it shows how the strength of someone comes from the core of someone. This reminds me of a saying "Pain is weakness leaving the body" as well as "only the strong survive" These girls have the strength to survive and are obviously working on getting rid of their weaknesses but at the same time going through the pain that they have to in order to overcome pain.
ReplyDeleteI applaud those young woman!
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