My favorite musical of all time is Wicked. "Why?" you might ask. Because it has my favorite song of all time... for good. The song goes something like this,
This summer, in-case you didn't know, I spent a pretty large chunk of my time working with 18 amazing kids from the Harrisburg Boys and Girls Club. In this short time, I've learned one big lesson: Simply, don't judge a book by its cover. I know this is something basic that we've all been tough from our childhoods but personally, I don't think I really applied this to my life until this summer.
I guess this requires some explanation. The kids I worked with this summer were the kids that were labeled as having "behavioral issues" and being "incapable of respecting authority". These kids have been in trouble more times in the first 7 or 8 years of their lives, than I've been in all mine... and that's saying a lot. The boys and girls club was basically a last ditch attempt by their loved ones (who ever that might be) to calm them down and get them on a good path.
Now if you know me at all, you know that working with children does not come easy to me...I have some difficulty with treating them like children and making excuses for unacceptable behavior. My expectations for kids are high in comparison to society's expectations. All that considered, me and a room full of kids with "behavioral issues" does not seem like the best idea... going into this summer, there was really (as much as I would like to say otherwise) no point where I thought my life would be so dramatically changed by these kids. Though I don't have the time to go into detail about each one of my children and how they've touched me, I do want to share the story of the one girl who has changed me the most.
lets call her J.
J came to the club guarded and defensive... she was probably my least favorite kid the first week. She hit, she bit, she kicked, she spit and she picked a fight with everyone she saw...sometimes even winning a couple of them. One morning was especially bad. We normally serve breakfast in the morning, and in the one hour of breakfast she had earned herself 6 different time outs. It reached the point where I was just sick of it, so I took her outside to the benches and told her she couldn't go inside until she explained to me why she thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with everyone. It took about 30 mins but I was not prepared for what I heard.
She started off telling me that she was tired... she couldn't go to bed the night before because her mom and older sister had been fighting all night and her mom had kicked her 14 year old sister out. I asked her where her dad was and she told me he was in jail... again. Most of the time her mom doesn't come home at night, and she has to walk to her grandma's house to feel safe. she doesn't know where her mom goes and she doesn't want to know. After talking to this little girl for a while, it became pretty clear that all the people she loves have constantly walked in and out of her life with absolutely no care for her well being. In the home that she's grown up in, with the exception of her grandmother, the only demonstration of love that she's received is through abuse... this girl had been through a lot. Her grandmother works hard to care for her and her sibling, but that's hard to do... Honestly, when she was telling me all of this, it took all of me to not start crying (and its taken me till this point to process it). I talked to one of the normal staff about this, and she confirmed that there are countless times in the year where J and her siblings spend weeks at her house because their mother is nowhere to found and their grandmother has to work.
This was clearly an eye opening experience on one level but it led me to something else. It is nothing short of amazing, that an 8 year old child can go through something as intense as this little girls life, and still wake up ready to face to world each morning. Even at my age, I can not imagine making it though an experience like this. The only think I have been able to think about since meeting this wonderful girl (who, by the way, has changed her attitude and has several art pieces on my fridge) is Jeremiah 29: 11
" I've heard it saidThis is not a lesson on musicals, because lets be honest, I have minimum knowledge of musicals. No, this blog is about how in just 3 months my life has truly been changed for good.
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you
Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good"
This summer, in-case you didn't know, I spent a pretty large chunk of my time working with 18 amazing kids from the Harrisburg Boys and Girls Club. In this short time, I've learned one big lesson: Simply, don't judge a book by its cover. I know this is something basic that we've all been tough from our childhoods but personally, I don't think I really applied this to my life until this summer.
I guess this requires some explanation. The kids I worked with this summer were the kids that were labeled as having "behavioral issues" and being "incapable of respecting authority". These kids have been in trouble more times in the first 7 or 8 years of their lives, than I've been in all mine... and that's saying a lot. The boys and girls club was basically a last ditch attempt by their loved ones (who ever that might be) to calm them down and get them on a good path.
Now if you know me at all, you know that working with children does not come easy to me...I have some difficulty with treating them like children and making excuses for unacceptable behavior. My expectations for kids are high in comparison to society's expectations. All that considered, me and a room full of kids with "behavioral issues" does not seem like the best idea... going into this summer, there was really (as much as I would like to say otherwise) no point where I thought my life would be so dramatically changed by these kids. Though I don't have the time to go into detail about each one of my children and how they've touched me, I do want to share the story of the one girl who has changed me the most.
lets call her J.
J came to the club guarded and defensive... she was probably my least favorite kid the first week. She hit, she bit, she kicked, she spit and she picked a fight with everyone she saw...sometimes even winning a couple of them. One morning was especially bad. We normally serve breakfast in the morning, and in the one hour of breakfast she had earned herself 6 different time outs. It reached the point where I was just sick of it, so I took her outside to the benches and told her she couldn't go inside until she explained to me why she thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with everyone. It took about 30 mins but I was not prepared for what I heard.
She started off telling me that she was tired... she couldn't go to bed the night before because her mom and older sister had been fighting all night and her mom had kicked her 14 year old sister out. I asked her where her dad was and she told me he was in jail... again. Most of the time her mom doesn't come home at night, and she has to walk to her grandma's house to feel safe. she doesn't know where her mom goes and she doesn't want to know. After talking to this little girl for a while, it became pretty clear that all the people she loves have constantly walked in and out of her life with absolutely no care for her well being. In the home that she's grown up in, with the exception of her grandmother, the only demonstration of love that she's received is through abuse... this girl had been through a lot. Her grandmother works hard to care for her and her sibling, but that's hard to do... Honestly, when she was telling me all of this, it took all of me to not start crying (and its taken me till this point to process it). I talked to one of the normal staff about this, and she confirmed that there are countless times in the year where J and her siblings spend weeks at her house because their mother is nowhere to found and their grandmother has to work.
This was clearly an eye opening experience on one level but it led me to something else. It is nothing short of amazing, that an 8 year old child can go through something as intense as this little girls life, and still wake up ready to face to world each morning. Even at my age, I can not imagine making it though an experience like this. The only think I have been able to think about since meeting this wonderful girl (who, by the way, has changed her attitude and has several art pieces on my fridge) is Jeremiah 29: 11
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.I can not help but hope that God really truly knows the plans he has for her life, plans that will make all this pain that she's had to experience worth while. It is really amazing how much we take our life journeys for granted...how much we ignore our encounters with others. Looking at my life, I know that God has had a plan for me even to this encounter with this little girl. So I'm sharing this for a couple reasons, 1. I just needed to process it...actually that's really the only reason. Hopefully a strangely different way I've made sense to someone else out there... that's where I was heading with this crazy long post...wait till you hear about my other summer job ;)
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