Loneliness

Today while teaching (I promise not all my entries will have to do with teaching) I encountered a peculiar situation at the end of the day. I was again subbing in Kindergarten, and at the end of the day, two older kids came into our class to assist with pack-up/dismissal. I saw both of these girls yesterday and everything was fine. Today it looked to me as if one of them had been crying. It soon became evident that she was upset, and even though she was trying to compose herself to read a book to the children, she couldn't pull it together.

I went over to her and said, "Would you like to just go take a minute outside the classroom? Sometimes I just need a minute." She took me up on the offer, stepped into the hallway, sat at a table with tiny chairs, and began to cry. She held her head in her hands and sobbed. I didn't know what to do - I was supposed to be directing kids to pack up for the end of the day, but clearly something was wrong with this girl.

After giving her a few minutes, I went over and said, "It looks to me like you're pretty upset, did something happen?" I didn't expect an answer - I didn't even know her. She spoke up and said, "My best friend said she didn't want to be friends with me because I'm different than everybody else." She began sobbing again. Her face was all red and her hair messed and sticking to the tears on her face. I tried to talk about it more with her, but truly didn't know what to say. I tried to talk to her a little bit about other friends, but then she said, "But she's my ONLY friend. I only have one friend."

Whoa. What do you say to that? I hope it works out? That's too bad? There's more fish in the sea?

Her heartache inspires me. Not in the "Inspiring" way of the previous entries, but more along the lines of a call to action. Her heartache compels me to care for those who are on the outskirts. Her loneliness prompts me to let kids know how special they are. Her tears inspire me to let each person know that it's good to be different, to be unique, to be who you were created to be.