A Glimpse

Sometimes I catch a glimpse of why I am doing this job. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of being able to do real therapy. I live for those moments. The child who refuses to talk but always sits with me at the gym and will now tell me about his family. Or the kid who acts like he is a tough guy but has court on Monday and admits, to me, he is scared to go back to jail.

These little moments make the job worthwhile. Sometimes, I get these moments a lot and then it is a good week. Sometimes they are few and far between and I wonder why I didn't hold out for a better job that matches my credentials. Well, this week was a good week because of one letter that a kid decided to write me because he had some bad moments the day before.

First off I love that this kid is 16 years old and this letter looks like a little kid wrote it. It reminds me to keep my patience with these kids because they may have teenage bodies but their developmental abilities still need to catch up. I keep it in my desk for when I have hard days. In it's entirety it says (excuse spelling!):

Mrs. Meredith
I am writing you a letter of promiseness and humbleness about my innaproprianess and immature behaviors yesterday. Yesterday I did many things to make myself look immature. Also I did things like flip a desk, curse you, kick a trash can, and draw a innappropriate picture. I know that these behaviors you would expect out of a six year old, and I admit I was acting like one. And Mrs. Meredith I know I was wrong for many different reasons. First you don't disrespect me, second you don't kick things, third you don't flip things, you come in everyday with a smile on your face and ready to try to help someone who needs help and you sacrifice a lot of your time in your life and others and I just want to say thank you for at least trying to help me. And I am truly humble for my immature actions yesterday will you forgive me. Thanks for everything you do for me Mrs. Meredith.

Just a glimpse of what I hope I can keep doing. Maybe I will get through to them after all.