Some Things Never Change.

I love working in a boarding house. I love the pastoral care, but more importantly I love that the girls soon start treating me as their friend and coming to me with their problems – especially when there is a boy involved. It is around this time – a month in to the year – that true friendships start to appear, and they start to admit which boys they like and so on. Last night turned in to a bit of a gossip-fest in the house, with certain people admitting that they were upset that said boy hadn’t spoken to them today or didn’t sit next to them in class or was partnered up with another girl in games.

It is at times like these that I remember that they are just teenagers and that desite the introduction of technology and social media addiction, some things actually don’t change. It reminds me of that scene in Never Been Kissed when Drew Barrymore writes her newspaper article and she says:

“What I ended up finding was myself, and that high school hadn’t changed.

There’s still that one teacher who marches to her own drummer.

Those girls are still there – the ones that, even as you grow up will remain the most beautiful girls you have ever seen close up.

The smart kids, who everyone knew as ‘the brains’, but I just knew them as my soul mates, my teachers, my friends.

And there’s still that one guy, with his mysterious confidence who seems so perfect in every way,

The guy you get up and go to school for in the morning.

South Glen would not have been the same without him,

High school would not have been the same without him.

I would not have been the same without him.”

(Source)

I remember mentioning this on the blog before, but it’s so so true. Some things really are still exactly the same. It’s funny because whenever I get upset about a boy, or a falling out with friends, my Mum often says to me ‘I’ve been there, remember I was your age once’, and for some reason I always think that some things must have been different back then and she cannot possibly understand how I am feeling. This led me to thinking that I wonder if the students sometimes think that about me.

One of the girls was crying yesterday and when I stopped to ask her why it was because that boy hadn’t stopped to speak to her.

I remember being in that situation and being unconsoleable. 5 years later, it’s still happening, and I’m sure it will continue to do so 15, 20, 25 years down the line.

That is one of the hardest parts of my job – dealing with a situation where there is physically nothing that I can do to help. I grow to love these girls, and it kills me to see them upset.

Oh well, I survived it, and so will they 😦