(Editor’s Note: This blog was written especially for the Humanity Project by Stephen Ross, a Florida high school student. Please also look for the link in this blog to Mr. Ross’s fine anti-bullying song and video, “Choose 2 Luv.”)
My name is Stephen Ross; I am a senior at Olympia High School in Orlando, Florida. In September of last year, one of my classmates committed suicide. It is believed that bullying had a lot to do with this tragic event.
I really wanted to do something that could have an impact on bullying at my school and at other high schools across the country. I decided to use my love of songwriting and passion for music to create an audio-visual message that would hopefully create a “mind-heart shift” among my peers. So I spent about two weeks writing the lyrics and melody for “Choose 2 Luv.” When I was satisfied with the song, I contacted a friend to help lay the musical track and master the song.
The harder part for me was coming up with the storyboard for the video. This was something that I had never done before. I had so many different ideas for the video. But with the help of the director, Ronnie Camilo, we agreed on a vision for the video.
I played the song for my National Honor Society advisor and showed her the video storyboard; she really loved it. She agreed to send an email to all of the National Honor Society students at my school to suggest that they participate in the video shoot. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Not quite, Stephen. Though that’s the end of Mr. Ross’s blog, we wanted to add just a few words more. The Humanity Project applauds his efforts to create a meaningful contribution to the growing number of anti-bullying art works of all kinds, musical, theatrical, visual and others. And we hope you’ll now click on this link to hear the result of his hard work: Watch the video, “Choose 2 Luv,” by Stephen Ross.
