By Vishani Ragobeer.

> Self-Esteem:
Hello! How was this week at school? Did you all celebrate World Literacy Day on Monday? Hmm, this week I will be talking about self-esteem. So I hope by the time I’m done I would have given you reasons to raise YOUR self-esteem. Self-esteem – that thing or rather that feeling you have that has the power to either significantly raise or lower your confidence. We all have our moments in which we feel ‘sky high’ or ‘rock bottom’ and this human mind was created with lots of feelings, each with its own way of being set off so these feelings come and go so quickly.
It is my very strong opinion that the most contributing factors to our self-esteem are our parents and our peers. I’m saying this because we all know that their opinions of us really do matter. If your parents congratulate/reward you for something you’ve done, doesn’t it raise your self- esteem and make you feel that you really are capable of making them proud? What about the times when they compare you to others, doesn’t that lower your self-esteem? What about your friends- at times don’t they say or do things to make you feel really good, while others are just completely oblivious to your feelings and really lower your self- esteem?
Now let’s focus on the aspect of your self- esteem being lowered, because frankly, it is this lowered self-esteem that causes us to be depressed and unfocused.
Let me outline some areas in which our self- esteems are lowered:

* Bad test grades
* Parents comparing you
* Friends making you feel ‘left out’
* Not being able to please people
* Not being as good at something as another person
* Parents not appreciating your efforts
* People making rude comments about you or the things you attempt to do
….. and my list could go on and on