That one insult was enough to cause Noro to cry hysterically and enter a tantrum of rage. It was enough to trigger the trauma and negativity of physical abuse that she had bottled up and hid for a number of years.

Ever since second grade, Noro was the target of bullying and physical attacks from her classmates. She was kicked, punched, pushed around, jumped on and even received death threats from another student while she was in Grade 2.

“I was just always different,” Noro said, noting that she has attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, poor short-term memory and poor motor skills.

“There’s a norm, and there’s someone who’s a little bit different, and they’re basically shunned just because they’re different.”

In an attempt to escape the bullying, Noro was home schooled from Grade 3 to 7, which gave her the chance to forget about the bullying at her previous school. When she was home schooled, she said that she “had no need to bring those memories (of the physical abuse) up.” She remained this way until that fateful incident in Grade 10, which she recalls transformed her into a totally different person.

“I was the angry girl that just didn’t want to speak to anybody. I couldn’t speak to anybody without getting into a fight with them,” said Noro, now 20.

During this time, Noro experienced a period of depression in which she made multiple suicide attempts and also resorted to physically cutting her body to cope with the trauma and to release her anger.

“There was no hope. There was nobody,” Noro said.

Although her mother had always brought her to church and prayed with her as a child, Noro felt that “God and everything good just faded out.”

But Noro began to open up to the people around her in Grade 11.

A nearby high school in Toronto was putting on a musical, and by helping with the costumes and the set, she found a more positive use of her time and was able to interact with others, making new friends. She was given the opportunity to interact with others again when she participated in the National March for Life in Ottawa that same year, 2011.

After Noro graduated from high school, she experienced God’s presence in a deeply personal and intimate way when she attended her first Steubenville Youth Conference. She felt God call her to have hope in Him through powerful and inspiring guest speakers, as well as uplifting times of prayer and eucharistic adoration.

“People need hope in their lives,” she said. “I needed that word. I needed to hear it for myself.”

Although everything was going well for Noro as she entered college, her struggles with depression were present even during her happier times. She was suddenly struck by depression again within her first year and was tempted once more to commit suicide. However, after a prayer of surrender and supplication to the Holy Spirit, she stopped what she was doing and immediately went to speak to her teacher about the issue. Slowly but surely, she had taken one of her first steps towards recovery.

Another step was taken at her second Steubenville Youth Conference, during which she experienced a greater peace and strength than she has ever known while praying in eucharistic adoration.

“I can’t even describe the peace,” she said. “(Eucharistic adoration) was such an emotional experience. For the first time I knew (God) was there for real, and I knew that there was nothing that was going to stop Him from being in my life and trying to help me.”

Although Noro admits that depression “is still a struggle,” she realizes the importance of sharing her testimony, as well as the importance and power of prayer. She identifies strongly with St. Agnes, who was innocently martyred at age 13, but “brought hope to the people, even if she ended up dying.”

Alongside her devotion to Mary and the rosary, Noro also notes the book TouchPoints for Students, which contains Scripture passages that address a variety of issues that young people face, including depression and suicide.

“Having God there and being able to talk to God is such an incredible thing, because (He) listens. He shows Himself, but there are so many teenagers out there who are losing faith because of everything that they’ve gone through,” said Noro. “I’m trying to tell them, ‘Look, it happens, but you’re not alone.’ ”

Noro knows that, even with the worst trial, “one day, (God) will fix it. One day, there will be something good to come out of it.”

(Pereira, 18, is a Grade 12 student at Brebeuf College School in Toronto, Ont.)