The school year is off to a start, with the good and the bad, the ups and the downs. Here in Krinkeland, it is a time of ongoing change. Change is not a bad thing, yet we sometimes struggle to embrace it. At times, our kids shrug off the challenges they face when it comes to coping with change; other times, they seem to embrace those changes and rise to new potential.
The social aspects of school are sometimes most challenging, and I, personally, think they can be just as important as academics. Let's face it-- everyone struggles with friendships and personal relationships from time to time; some people are just better than others at faking their way through it. (I have been rightfully criticized at times for my bad behavior=cannot fake it.) For some kids, it can be really tough to "put themselves out there." I feel all the feels for them.
Another friend shared this article today on social media, and, I must say, I love the idea:
Last week, I said to Amanda, who is herself a new student at the high school: "You know I do not engineer your friendships, and I stay out of the way of your personal relationships, as long as I believe you are treating all people with basic respect, and it's hard for me to ask this of you, but I am going to, anyway, because I think it's so important, and you are just the kind of person to do this gracefully: If someone, anyone ever, ever asks to sit by you at lunch or in an assembly or asks to walk with you in the hall or to just be a part of what you're doing, promise me-- promise me-- you'll say 'yes!'" My firstborn looked me square in the eyes and calmly, cheerfully said, "Of course, Mom! I already invited two kids I didn't know to sit at our lunch table just today. One joined us... The other said she was just looking for the garbage and lunch was pretty much over, anyway."
my friend and neighbor Jenny and me on the front steps before starting seventh grade
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