Working hard for the money....

I am starting to take some Master's classes this term (as my term doesn't end until October).  Since I am done with my Bachelor's classes they can open up Master's classes for freeeeeeeeeeee! :) So, anyways, I thought, "what the heck....it doesn't cost me anything." BUT, after October, if I want to continue then it will cost me.  So I decided I needed to hunt down some scholarship money.  It is a little harder to come by as a graduate student but it is out there if you are willing to put the time and effort into finding it!  Here is an essay that I wrote for a "cyber-bullying" scholarship.  My momma llama wanted to read it. :)

I am a mother of 5 – wonderful, intelligent, maybe even smarty-pants - children.  I worry for them, for what others may say to them when I am not there to hear it.  The world is so different from when I was in school.  When I wanted to talk to someone, I would pick up the phone and call.  I suggested that the other day to my 14-year-old son when he asked if he could text a girl.  He laughed at me and said, “Mom, no one talks on the phone anymore!”

I suppose he’s right.  Why talk to someone when you can text, message, post, poke or video chat?  We are in a whole new world here and I think that as a parent I have the right to be a little scared!  Not that I don’t trust my kids; I raised them right.  I think they understand the world around them and I tried to instill a respect for any living thing.  It’s just that in a techno world I think you lose some of your inhibition.  I am not saying that you are a different person online than in person – but in a lot of ways I think people are!

So the question really becomes how do we teach self control over the avatar that is living in this pseudo society.  I think that it starts the same way that gaining manners starts - in the home.  We need to teach our kids that things that happen on the Internet don’t just stay on the Internet!  This is not Las Vegas, people!  Or more correctly, they DO stay on the Internet…FOREVER (cue scene from Sandlot, forever, forever, forever…). 

The first step in teaching our children cyber manners is in the example that we set for them.  Am I portraying myself as who I am or do I puff myself up for a laugh, a response, a reaction?  Be true to who you are!  If you would not say something out loud, with your parents in the room, then don’t say it on the Internet! If you would never want your mom to see that sexy picture that you took for your boyfriend, then don’t post it on the Internet!  If your parents would be ashamed of the way you just cyber bullied that kid from school, then don’t do it!

Stand up for the best version of you!  Encourage those around you to do the same.  Let your friends know that you have a zero tolerance policy for ignorance in any manner on the Internet or in life!  Make your Momma proud and stop cyber bullying whenever and wherever you see it.  YOU can be the voice for change. YOU can stand up for the little guy.  YOU can make all the difference in the world.