I was six years old when I started grade R. There was an older learner who abused me because I was young. Now I am to talk about what he did to me and my other classmates because he did not only abuse me – he also abused my classmates.

I was a little boy, the youngest in my class. There was a big boy, with a rough voice who was disrespectful and everyone feared him. He took all my things, my stationary such as books, pens, and also my pocket money. Each and every day I bought him lunch because if I did not do it he would beat me. During school hours when we wrote classwork or short tests, I showed him all my work and he was doing copy and paste on my work.

Day and night I was crying. I never wanted my family to know what happened and my feelings. I pretended as if I was happy although it really hurt inside my heart. The worst part was I grew up in a poor family, but that boy forced me to bring R10 to school every day. One day I had had enough of this and I cried very loudly. The teacher heard me and they took me to the staff room. I told them everything – from the day he started to bully me.

The school principal was so angry. He decided to suspend the boy from school. That was the time I got to be free, stress-less, and share anything with my family. I learnt that when I have a problem I must tell someone who is close to me. Also I learnt that to abuse someone is not right because that boy left the school and his future was not successful.

I learnt that when a plant starts to grow, insects can destroy the beauty and plant starts to shrivel up. Coming to my event, I was the plant full of all kinds of features, and that boy was the insect who destroyed my dignity, pride, confidence. But today, I stand and say it was part of life and that which made me to be so clever like now.