The Little Things

I FINALLY went back to work yesterday(after three unexpected weeks off)...for a whole 14.5 hours.

By 5:00pm I was drained and ready for bed.

But that's not why I'm writing about my day back at work...

But, here's why.

There's one particular girl in the program who has come from a pretty abusive past.

Probably one of the worst child abuse cases we have in the program right now.

She has a sister, who is younger in the program as well.

But, back to this girl...

She doesn't have any contact to her mom right now, in fact the mother is in jail.

They have two Aunts, who I can't figure out.

They don't come and pick the girls up when they are supposed to.

They let the girls down like there is no tomorrow.

It's been really sad to watch over the past few months.

The only family they basically have doesn't want them.

So, yesterday morning I was probably more crabby than I normally am on Saturday mornings because I was tired and not feeling up to par.

This girl and I hit it off on the wrong note since she woke up.

All day I felt like I was having to ask her multiple times to complete tasks, such as making her bed, folding her laundry, cleaning up her trash, etc.

It got old, real quick.

Then, while we were ice skating, she had one of the other girls come ask me if this other girl could use the restroom.

I lost it.

I said "X, How old are you?!"

X: "15"

"And YOU can't ask to use the bathroom yourself?!?"

I was ticked! Annoyed! ARGH!

I politely told her to use the restroom, but next time she needed to ask me.

We got home that night and I went to do room checks, and her bed was STILL not made.

The only one in the room with sheets still in a pile on the bed.

I, lost it, again!

I called X into her room.

Told her to please have a seat.

I told X there seems to be a miscommunication between X and I today.

I explained how everything I asked her to do today didn't really get completed, in fact, I should not even have to ask for these things to get done. She's been there long enough to know how things are ran on Saturday.

She instantly started to cry. She clenched up. Fists closed tightly.

I was getting my game face on and restraint methods ready.

She started yelling, not at me, but at her life.

How everyone doesn't care about her, how she feels betrayed by her aunts, how her mother abandoned her, how she wanted out of the program. How she hated her life. She hated everything.

I confirmed her feelings, and agreed with her that she has every valid right to feel that way, but that she wasn't allowed to feel like that forever.

I worked through it with her.

Finally, when I could tell she was ready to listen to my 2 cents, I chimed in.

I told her how thankful she should be to her Mother for giving her up, because her life now is ten times better than it was before. She should accept that her mom knew she couldn't provide for X and her sister, and that she needed to be grateful her Mother loved her so much to realize this. I went more into detail about her situations, but you get the big picture ;)

I was also able to explain the little things to be thankful for in life.

X is guaranteed 3 meals a day, a bed to sleep on, X has to shower everyday, clothes are provided.

Yea, she has been through hell, but I wasn't going to let her revert back to the abuse days and miss them. I had to get her to see the road ahead, not the broken road behind her.

After a good hour, she agreed she would write her emotions down and write a letter to her aunts explaining her pain.

When we got up to leave, she turned to me and thanked me from the bottom of her heart for talking to her and listening to her.

She said she needed to hear everything I said to her...what she doesn't know is, I probably needed to hear what I said, more than she did.

I always get caught up in the big ordeal going on in my life.

I forget to take a step back and be thankful for all the little, more important things I have.

So, by the end of my shift, I was thankful I went to work.

I was thankful I was in the right place and the right time to lend an ear, speak a few words, and learn an important lesson with this young girl.

"We have to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what we got and remember what we had...

Things go wrong...but life goes on"

*I shared this story more so I will remember this night. I wish you could all have been flies on the wall. It was intense, but amazing all at the same time. I wish I could remember every single word that was spoken by both of us, but I can't. Regardless, I have a brighter look on my life, and hopefully, so does X