There's this kid at my job. He's half Peurto Rican, half white. He's in 8th grade. When we first met with his parents everyone was complaining about his behavior. He was one of those kids who was always getting into trouble.
I'm a supervisor, but I offered to work with him personally. See, I saw through him. And I was right...completely right. He wears that tough guise on the outside, but on the inside he's actually the sweetest, most sensitive, intelligent and mature kid I've ever known. Honestly, the kid is literally one of the most amazing people I have ever met...and I don't say that about many people.
He wasn't doing well in school. At first he came off as not caring at all; he gave the impression of being completely apathetic in general. But the truth was the kid can't sleep. He can't sleep at night because he can't stop thinking and worrying about school and everything else. He cares. He cares too much. And his 'apathy' was a defense mechanism.
Since connecting with him, he's been completely different. It's like there's a calm inside him now...that's the best way I can describe it. He does his work, he cares about it. He's invested, involved. It's like he was away. And now he's back. And he's okay inside. He's calm. He even said that his relationships with other people in his life are better.
I don't think it's because of anything I did. The truth is, I don't even know what it was. I just believed in him and I gave him that trust, when no one else did. I listened to him and I understood. Most of all, I cared. I didn't believe he was a bad kid. I saw him for what he really was, and that's what he became.
He told me today about this dream he had. He said he was an older man in the dream and he was very rich. And he could hear someone saying to him 'it's time'. And when he looked it was these two men holding a gun, and handing him one. He knew what they meant, and he knew what he had to do. They wanted him to take the gun and shoot a man who was standing in the corner. He stood up and realized that he had to do it because otherwise they would kill him. So he shot the man...and after shooting him, he realized that the man he had just shot was himself.
What amazed me even more than the depth of the dream, was his understanding of it.
I asked him what he thought it meant and he said: "Sometimes the things that we think are good for us (money)...turn out to be bad for us. And we chase things like money, thinking that they'll make us happy, but we don't realize that we're actually killing ourselves. "
I'm a supervisor, but I offered to work with him personally. See, I saw through him. And I was right...completely right. He wears that tough guise on the outside, but on the inside he's actually the sweetest, most sensitive, intelligent and mature kid I've ever known. Honestly, the kid is literally one of the most amazing people I have ever met...and I don't say that about many people.
He wasn't doing well in school. At first he came off as not caring at all; he gave the impression of being completely apathetic in general. But the truth was the kid can't sleep. He can't sleep at night because he can't stop thinking and worrying about school and everything else. He cares. He cares too much. And his 'apathy' was a defense mechanism.
Since connecting with him, he's been completely different. It's like there's a calm inside him now...that's the best way I can describe it. He does his work, he cares about it. He's invested, involved. It's like he was away. And now he's back. And he's okay inside. He's calm. He even said that his relationships with other people in his life are better.
I don't think it's because of anything I did. The truth is, I don't even know what it was. I just believed in him and I gave him that trust, when no one else did. I listened to him and I understood. Most of all, I cared. I didn't believe he was a bad kid. I saw him for what he really was, and that's what he became.
He told me today about this dream he had. He said he was an older man in the dream and he was very rich. And he could hear someone saying to him 'it's time'. And when he looked it was these two men holding a gun, and handing him one. He knew what they meant, and he knew what he had to do. They wanted him to take the gun and shoot a man who was standing in the corner. He stood up and realized that he had to do it because otherwise they would kill him. So he shot the man...and after shooting him, he realized that the man he had just shot was himself.
What amazed me even more than the depth of the dream, was his understanding of it.
I asked him what he thought it meant and he said: "Sometimes the things that we think are good for us (money)...turn out to be bad for us. And we chase things like money, thinking that they'll make us happy, but we don't realize that we're actually killing ourselves. "
posted by sonarani at 9:53 PM
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