Courage

Today, my team and I, along with our 150 students went to a Courage Retreat put on by Youth Frontiers. It started off with lots of games and icebreakers and stories and then evolved into small group talks and large group stories from the facilitators. It ended with a time for the students to write about an act of courage that they are going to commit to, then it was open to anyone who wanted to share....All I can say is: "Wow." I'm amazed at how open minded our kids were. I'm amazed at how many are brave enough to share their fears with everyone. I'm amazed at the courage that some of these young people have. It also astounds me at the "stuff" that these young people carry.

I read a book called, "The Things They Carried." It's a story about soldiers and their journeys through their tour of duty and it literally talks about the physical things they carried, but more so about what they carried emotionally. I read the book several times because it just touched my heart and hit home in so many ways. Today I thought of many of my students and thought about the things that THEY carry everyday; the things that I probably never had to worry about.

So, for my act of courage, I want to show more empathy toward others. I grew up in a family where we didn't show much emotion, we had the occasional hugs or "I love you's" but not like what I WANT to have and so I feel like I am a very 'tough-love' type of person (with both students and family). I want to show others the empathy that I feel. (Maybe I can beat the odds and change my empathy score...)