Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Scary at all ages

My friend, L, and her family have moved to a new home 100 kms from where they used to live. It's paradise but it's still scary. L writes:

"... tomorrow our real life here will start. To be honest I’m a bit scared.
What if the kids don’t like their new schools?
What if they don’t make any friends?
What if I don’t make any friends?"

I have a solution. It comes from Miss 16. Yesterday she started school in Chicago. 13,000 kms away. Over 4000 kids at her school. She tells me day 1 was scary. People were nice but at lunch time it was just too hard to go into the cafeteria and strike up a conversation with total strangers. How do you break into a group? There were hundreds of people. Who would want to talk to her?

Day 2 she talks to a few kids during class. Someone offers to meet her at lunch time. She gets introduced to a group of kids for lunch. They're all nice. They ask her to join one of their clubs. The Irish club. (She's not even Irish - but she does have red hair maybe that counts?) After school she gets invited downtown with a small group. They have dinner together.

Day 3 tomorrow. It's still scary. But she has friends.

The solution? It's a cliche but... just do it.

3 comments:

Rachel F said...

wow Mel, how do you feel with your baby all that way away! I don't know if I would cope lol.
What a fantastic opportunity!

Lisa said...

Hi mel,
Miss 16 is doing something much braver t han me - she's there without her family and in a new country. I'm sure she'll be fine and we will too (eventually!) How are are you coping with her so far away?
L x

Janine said...

Sounds like Miss 16 is doing well in her first week at school. BUt your right "just do it", I think as adults we tend to overthink everything, me included. Sometimes we just need to stop thinking and just start "doing".