Bold acts of courage. Reggie & I experienced so many at Wren HS yesterday in South Carolina, we couldn’t stop talking abt it in the car ride back.
Due to scheduling, we had to pack abt 6 hrs of programming/assemblies/discussions, into one continuous day. That’s a LOT for students who are used to classes breaking every 45 minutes, w shorter attention spans.
But these kids were champions. We see it at all the schools we visit…these kids NEED this type of focused conversation. When you tell stories & share your vulnerabilities…instead of presenting w bullet pt lists & technical terminology, they engage – they ask questions, their eyes stay focused.
This generation gets chastised for having short attention spans…& maybe theirs is shorter bc they grew up in a social media world. However, if you talk to their hearts, w your hearts, they give plenty of attention…& they want to learn.
How do we know this? Bc not only do we see their eyes focused throughout in the auditoriums…we see how many come up AFTER 6 hrs of programming, & STILL want to hang out…want to ask individual/personal questions.
These kids are crying for our help, & when we’re simply human & give our lived experiences to them (w just enough info abt the science of it all, & tools to work on themselves, given to us by the experts in the integrative space), they want to know more & want to dive deeper.
Reg & I were AMAZED by the courage of the questions we got as individual students came up to us after. For purposes of anonymity, we can’t get into specific students but the questions ran the gamut from: how to deal w isolation & it being hard to make friends…to how lonely it feels not to have a boyfriend/girlfriend when it seems easy for others…to discussing sexuality w parents who have vocally & publicly shamed what the child feels/stands for. Just amazingly vulnerable shares w us.
Reggie shared so much – shared his own suicide attempt. A former NFL player getting that vulnerable. When we create the safe space, our kids are willing to come in & share & ask questions.
We all can create that space – anywhere- by HOW we talk to our kids. Vulnerability wins.