A different perspective

Today I spent the morning at an alternative high school participating in a Women of Wisdom conference. We women spent time with groups of girls talking about what it means to be a woman today, what challenges we face and how to overcome them. I spent the night before tossing and turning because to be honest, high school scares me. I imagined the girls glaring at me with their arms folded thinking...what does THIS woman know about anything? The other thoughts I had were: leave it to me to screw up some kid's life in a matter of a morning. Of course the wise part of me knew that I would be able to find access points to at least engage them in conversation.

Here are some thoughts I had:

• Boy that is some blue hair


• Ouch how did that post get through her nose?


• Could there be any more eyeliner in this room?


• Did I have this kind of apathetic look as a kid?


• Yowza my life was good compared to these kids


• Oh how I hope that these girls have a chance to make something of themselves


• Yikes, these girls are fighting over whether it's ok to have drugged-out moms raise their kids


• This girl has amazing insight at such a young age


• This girl actually might have a chance


• I wish I had some of this clarity when I was young


• I'm not that bad at facilitating


• I wish I had THOSE girls at that table in MY group


• That woman probably thinks I'm a Polly Anna


• How do teachers do this day in and day out


• YUM free coffee!

And then I left the event with this curious sense of having witnessed a little gem of insight with today's youth, but then having a sense of loss and hopelessness suspecting that only a small percentage might actually be able to make it out of the rubble of lives that they current operate in...then my final thought was THANK GOD FOR MY AWESOME LIFE...PAST AND PRESENT!