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career counseling

The other night I met with one of my old favorite students.
She was smart and funny and played soccer and liked good music and was a complete smart ass.
How could I not like her?

I could see a little bit of me in her.
And some of the rocky she was traveling down and not talking about.
I knew.
Because I’d been down my own paths.
It when you look at someone and see them going where you have already been,
You can’t help but want to go a little ways with them.
And ease the burden a bit.

Neither of us are really sappy like that.
So mostly we just talked about music and soccer….but we would occasionally venture into heavier topics like parents and love and worth.

And now she is a little bit more grown up, but finding herself on a less rocky but narrowing path…
So I took her out for some “career counseling”.
And I ate her chips and sucked on my drink and tried to make her think about her future.
And question where she is and where she wants to be and who she wants to bring with her.
And I kept telling her to leave. (not the table, just the town).
For a little while.
Because it is so hard to figure who you are in the same context you have always been in.

But she has good people with her and she doesn’t want to go anywhere.
And maybe that’s ok too.
Maybe lots of people (or even just one or two) can make that rocky path a little smoother. As long as they are willing to walk forward with you.

And we laughed and ate more chips and she suggested maybe that I should be taking some of my own advice.
Because I have been on this same path for a while.
And it is not a bad one. Hardly rocky at all.
But sometimes I wonder if I could hack it in a different direction.

All I know is that no matter what road I’m on….
My people are coming with me.
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Comments

Corinne Cunningham said…
Those moments where the student unexpectedly becomes the teacher are pretty unique.
This left me nodding in agreement :)
April 17, 2010 at 5:24 PM
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