Bullying recovery and finding your voice after years of silence. Mahir spent six years trapped in a rumour-built narrative at an all-boys high school. What he discovered when he finally spoke up, and how he rebuilt through journalism and real belonging, is the story of how sustained social bullying cuts deeper than one violent moment.
Mahir walked into year 7 as an energetic, curious kid. By the end of that year, a rumour had locked him into a predetermined narrative he couldn’t escape. For six years, he ducked windows, avoided corridors, and stayed close to two friends as protection. The day before his HSC exams, 15 students chased and tackled him during a water fight. The school photographer published the moment in the newsletter. That night, Mahir broke down and finally told his mother what had happened. What strikes deepest in his story is not the single attack but the silence it enforced, and the male shame that kept him trapped: admitting harm felt like weakness. His mother’s intervention and a stranger’s push forced him to speak. The mandatory apologies from the bullies didn’t heal him. The real turning point came later, in a journalism lecture at UTS where he found people with the same curiosity and energy he’d had before year 7. All the stories he’d bottled up exploded into writing, speaking, and public voice. A nine-day volunteer trip across regional Australia with 80 strangers, sleeping on church floors and working alongside real hardship, showed him what genuine belonging actually looked like. Mahir now works in broadcast media at 9 News while mentoring emerging writers and advocating for young people through Headspace and Are You Okay?. His message is earned from lived experience: use your voice not to drown others out, but to uplift them. His story matters because it shows how rumour and silence amplify shame in ways young men especially struggle to name, and how a small setback (missing Navy intake by 1 percent) can redirect you to exactly where you needed to be.
In this Kintsugi Heroes conversation with Mark Henderson, Mahir shares the story behind the moments below.
🎙️ IN THIS CONVERSATION:
• Mahir articulates clearly that the worst part of six years of bullying was not the jokes or even the physical attack, but the rumours that trapped him. When he tried to befriend new groups, preconceived notions had already formed, leaving him no chance to be known as himself. This prevented recovery and reset.
• Mahir’s story evidences how male shame and cultural pressure to appear unaffected kept him silent for years, even when attacked. His mother had to intervene; a stranger on a bus had to push him. He frames this as a particular vulnerability young men face, where admitting harm is read as weakness.
• After years searching for genuine connection, Mahir found his people not in university lecture halls but on a nine-day volunteer trip where strangers slept on church floors and worked alongside real hardship together. He describes deep bonds forming through shared challenge that surpassed years of casual friendship.
• Mahir missed Navy intake by 1 percent on a lung capacity test, a small margin that felt like failure at the time. The four-month wait to rebook meant missing the enrollment window entirely. Instead, he walked into journalism and discovered storytelling, broadcasting, and mentorship as his actual path. The setback was the redirection.
• Mahir’s message about voice is earned from lived experience of being silenced, not abstract principle. He articulates a shift from the bullying culture he experienced (where louder voices drown others) to a deliberate practice of amplifying rather than silencing others. This frames his work in broadcasting and mentorship as active repair.
• Mahir entered year 7 as an expressive, curious kid and had that identity locked away by rumour and bullying for six years. Walking into journalism at UTS, he found people with that same energy and discovered the self he’d been forced to suppress was still there. His story is about reclaiming who he was before the fracture.
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