Guest Blogger: Lindsay Rush
By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 01, 2009
Lindsay Rush is a new member of the BullyBust team! In addition to being one of today’s most celebrated and talked about up-and-coming singer-songwriters, Lindsay is also a passionate bully prevention awareness advocate. As she hops from gig to gig this year, she will be sharing resources with friends and fans, and encouraging them to pledge their commitment to be upstanders (as opposed to passive bystanders) in the face of bullying.Here’s her story:
My name is Lindsay Rush. I’m a singer-songwriter-guitarist and national Bully Prevention spokesperson. I have traveled all over the country performing sharing my experiences and advice about Bully Prevention with students and educators. I’m so excited to be working with the Center for Social & Emotional Education on the BullyBust campaign. Here’s my story about why I wanted to get involved.
When I was fifteen years old, I moved from Philadelphia to a small town about an hour North. At my old school, I would have graduated with a class of about 1400 students. When I moved, my class was drastically smaller – 78 kids.
I had always been really shy. However, I had never really had a lot of problems socializing if I was feeling comfortable. Just a couple of years before I moved, I was elected Vice President of my middle school Student Council and I had a pretty big group of friends. When I moved, it was a completely different story. Everyone at the new school seemed to have all the friends they needed, and no one talked to “the new girl.” In class on a couple of occasions, I had overheard some girls talking about me, just a lab table away, as if I couldn’t hear them.
Some days, I would go to the library during Lunch to “do homework,” but the real reason was that I felt completely ignored and left out when I sat in the cafeteria with everybody else. At night, I would talk on the phone with my best friend from my old school, and cried. She cried too, and asked me repeatedly, “Why won’t they talk to you?” I really didn’t know.
I desperately needed an outlet for my frustration and for the words that I so badly wanted to say to my new classmates, if any of them would’ve been willing to listen. So I started writing music. I wrote songs on blank pages of my notebooks and on the backs tests that I had failed because I had been so distracted by the silence, to really pay attention. Pretty soon, I began to play the guitar, which ended up serving as a tool to write better and better. Shortly after, I started playing Open Mic Nights near my house, and I was finally able to say what I needed to say.
Now, a few short years later, I’m still writing and playing my music as a way to express myself. The difference now though, is that instead of playing Open Mic Nights for a handful of people in tiny coffeehouses, I’m living on tour buses and touring the world with music icons like Pat Benatar, The Bangles, Lisa Loeb, and Styx. I get to call my idols, “friends,” and I’m no longer just playing to speak out for myself – now, I am so grateful to be in the position to be a voice for other as well. And I always keep that in my mind when I write and perform. By using my emotions and thoughts to fuel my creativity, and believing that I could be something much greater than the victim of a bully, I have been able to live my dreams and way beyond.
I used to feel like if so many kids were ignoring me, then I really must not be worth their attention. I thought that no matter what I did, it couldn’t possibly be enough to prove to myself or to my bullies that I was worth more. But I pushed and pushed myself to keep on writing music until self-belief became the essence of who I was. I am telling you, we’re all on this planet for a reason – and it is not to be anyone’s victim.
Lindsay Rush’s Official Website
Want to get involved with the BullyBust campaign? Let us know! Post in the comments below.
