Don’t You Forget About Me
I’m not a teacher, but a sleep-away camp counselor. I feel like my two cents will fit here nicely. Last year, there was this 11-year-old who was crying on my shoulder for about 30 minutes because he was homesick. After holding him and calming him down to the point where he could talk to me, he finally confessed it all to me.
As he did, he expressed his fear and anxiety about going home and finding that his parents didn’t love him anymore. He was also worried that his sister wouldn’t love him anymore and intrinsically that his family wouldn’t care about him anymore. He said he was totally unsure of his life and didn’t feel secure.
I was able to convince him of the truth: That lots of people care about him (including myself, which I said to him), that he’s part of an amazing program (Boy Scouts of America), and that he had value to many people. But most of all, that his family would still love him just as much when he went home.