Changing lives

In one of the chapters of "Tuesdays with Morrie", he mentioned something about finding a meaningful life and devoting yourself to loving others, to the community and creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

I thought of another girl who was also put in my charge. I used to walk past her each time, treating her as part of the 'masses'. She would often get the "You again!!" remarks from staff. Still, she kept it within her and one day, she requested to talk to me personally. Usually I'm busy scuttling up and down hallways but that day, I chose to sit down with her and listen to her. That was when she told me her story....

She was often the outcast. Labelled a deviant by her principal and teachers, even the police, she would say. In fact, the OC and myself also labelled her a deviant amongst the deviants. Yet, she told me the love she had for her family, for others around her. I began to see her differently. I gave her some assignments to keep her focused on her studies and told her that I'd see her again.

She completed the assignments duly and most of the time, I caught her off-guard when I went to talk to her. I saw the many sheets of papers that she had scribbled on as she thought of the questions I had given her and she was rammaging through them to find the final copy which she had prepared for me to keep. She even made a copy for herself. "So that I can remember" she said. I gave her more assignments and told her to think through some things.

When I didn't have time to see her, she'd write down whatever she wanted to tell me on sheets of paper and passed them to me. I kept these papers to this day. It wasn't the contents that matter to me. I was the invisible listening ear that she needed. More importantly, through her internally monologues and self-reflection, she began to change. She was doing much better in her studies and stopped accumulating minor 'report cards'.

Before she was out, she requested to see me. As usual, I squeezed a few minutes out of my work to see her. It was particularly rushed because I was no longer in charge of these girls. She was pleasantly surprised to see me and told me that she had so much to tell me but wasn't prepared. I told her the things that I wanted to tell her, and there's one thing that I didn't tell her - we started on a journey of change the day when I chose to listen to her. Just much as she thinks that I've made an impact in her life, she has made an impact in mine too. She's back to the safety and comfort of her home now. I hope she's doing well. And happy.