I got to thinking…

I’m sitting here at Midway airport—my flight is delayed hours due to weather. I feel tired and antsy, wishing I were anywhere but here. And then, I got to thinking…

That’s exactly how I used to feel when I was in school! Every day was an exercise in courage and patience. It was especially rough during seventh and eighth grade—like being in limbo, stuck between wanting to be an adult, but still wishing I could be a normal kid, one who fit in, got invited to parties, and always had someone to sit with at lunch.

It wasn’t just me who felt in limbo either. I know my parents did too. Waiting here at the Southwest Terminal, I’m beginning to realize my late departure tonight is probably meant to be. Why? Because it’s giving me a quiet moment of introspection, and some quality time for you and I to talk.

If you’re reading this, whether you’re a parent worried for your hurting child, a teen wishing like me, you were anywhere else but where you are now, a teacher worried for a special student, or an Adult Survivor of Peer Abuse, still stuck in the pain from your past, there’s something I’d like to share with you, that helped me when I was a kid, and is helping me right now.

Write it down! If you’re angry, afraid, frustrated, happy , sad, WHATEVER you’re feeling right now, take a moment to write it down. You could start a journal and this could be your first entry; you could try writing a poem (no, it doesn’t have to rhyme—good poetry is about honesty, not just cadence). Don’t have any paper? Send an email to yourself, or use whatever you can grab—a napkin, even a dollar bill! For those of you who’ve read Please Stop Laughing At Me…, you probably noticed all the poetry I included. I wrote those poems during the hardest times at school, and many of them were written on the most surprising surfaces—a styrofoam plate, a discarded piece of scrap paper, the blank page at the back of one of my Nancy Drew mysteries—you name it, I probably wrote on it. And each of those poems was a purging, a healthy catharsis that not only got me through the worst of the pain I was experiencing at the time, but which also has helped me to grow as an adult, because looking back, rereading them now, they give my past a context and framework. They help me understand myself better, and in turn, all the kids I work with in school across America. They also remind me how far I’ve come since those lonely, scary days, and how grateful I am to have each and every one of you in my life.

So pick up a pen, pencil, crayon or keyboard and pour your hearts out! It can bring you peace, hope and clarity. Happy writing everyone!