A Tribute to All the Fighters
I have a little girl in my home right now that is all heart! She missed a lot of school due to the instability of her family life. She was not made to go to school, but she attended more than all her siblings when she was able to get there. They are all significantly behind in school.
When she moved in, I made small talk with this shy untrusting preteen by asking if she knows what she wants to be when she grows up.
She flicked her eyes up at me as she sat at the kitchen island. “A doctor.”
“When I was seven, I decided to be a teacher. My high school counselor asked me to consider becoming an architect or a doctor, but I wanted to be a teacher, and now I am.” I acknowledged the possibility of her dream.
“I wanted to become a doctor since I was in kindergarten,” she confessed.
“You will be a doctor someday if that is what you choose, but you will have to work hard when you feel like quitting.” I confided as she looked at me quietly, absorbing the truth.
I often see her open her computer to start remote learning before the school day begins without ever being asked. I encourage her to play outside, but she always finds her way back to the kitchen table, where she continues to plug along on assignments until bedtime many days. She is smart but has missed so much content over the years. She has been asking for help to write paragraphs, and I have been explaining what an introduction and conclusion are in essays. She steadily works on, without complaining. As we work together, she is learning to trust me, and her belief in herself is growing.
This little girl came to us with an inner fire. A small but fiercely stubborn flame, no one beat out of her. Her resolve to live and fight on grows. I am so glad that I get to help fan the flames of her passion for making a difference in the world. How many other future doctors (who may save our lives one day) are little sparks of unnoticed or neglected hope right now? Many children do not have parents who help with homework and some refuse to allow their children to engage in school. These children are invisible to most of us.
How can we see them? We must look. Look for them!
A teacher friend I know makes sure she feeds the little friend down the street any time she comes over because this child doesn’t always have food at her house.
Growing up, one of my best friends was very quiet. I never knew until I was an adult that she often didn’t have food at her house. She wished she was popular like her sister so she could spend the night at people’s homes and get to eat. I never knew until she shared with me as adults that when she spent the night and saw that my parents got along and that we were happy, she thought we were fake like a TV show. She honestly didn’t know people could live like that in real life.
The children in the most need will never reveal their situation. So feed the kids that come to your house. Go out of your way to offer words of hope and encouragement to the people you encounter each day. See the invisible. If everyone in the car is having a banana, roll down the window and share one with the man holding the cardboard, “Help,” sign at the corner while you wait for the light to turn green. He is someone’s son. Acknowledge the value of each life. Don’t let the flickering flames of hope go out.
Be Brave & Love Well