karmaic cycles indeed.
just spent a good part of my morning mediating (in halting mandarin) between a frantic parent who was half crying and her son in my form class who is seeing an older woman. she's telling me how he sneaks off, lies and once racked up a hp bill amounting to 1000+ texts and hundreds in phone calls.
i had to placate her that i would speak to the boy first to get his side of the story and when i did, i found myself suddenly relating to everything he was going through, the way he had to grapple with his home life and his partner, the guilt, the constant need to assure both ends that he wants to work things out. he's barely 17 and taking on so much. so i asked him if he loved her and his resolute and disarmingly mature rejoinder was, 'i want to take care of her. i know she's not with me for any other reason because i'm still a student, with no money or status.'
talk about the deeper ironies of advising the kid to not let the r/s consume him and his studies. then i just told him i know exactly what sort of turmoil this is causing all parties, short of revealing why except to say that i had been in an almost similar circumstance. just looking at his tired eyes and yet that pure motivation to work things out was moving. it's almost fated that i should have to dispense advice to this kid because i had lived it on the other side. i think we're going to have more follow-ups and i fear i'll have to do more than mediate in the near future...
never a dull moment at work.
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update:saw a missed call when out. the mother's threatening to confront the 26yo woman.omfg
i tried to advise her against in bad mandarin (couldn't think of gen4 yuan2 zong4 then so i said gen4 chan3 haha).
damn may need to change hp no. again.
i had to placate her that i would speak to the boy first to get his side of the story and when i did, i found myself suddenly relating to everything he was going through, the way he had to grapple with his home life and his partner, the guilt, the constant need to assure both ends that he wants to work things out. he's barely 17 and taking on so much. so i asked him if he loved her and his resolute and disarmingly mature rejoinder was, 'i want to take care of her. i know she's not with me for any other reason because i'm still a student, with no money or status.'
talk about the deeper ironies of advising the kid to not let the r/s consume him and his studies. then i just told him i know exactly what sort of turmoil this is causing all parties, short of revealing why except to say that i had been in an almost similar circumstance. just looking at his tired eyes and yet that pure motivation to work things out was moving. it's almost fated that i should have to dispense advice to this kid because i had lived it on the other side. i think we're going to have more follow-ups and i fear i'll have to do more than mediate in the near future...
never a dull moment at work.
---
update:saw a missed call when out. the mother's threatening to confront the 26yo woman.omfg
i tried to advise her against in bad mandarin (couldn't think of gen4 yuan2 zong4 then so i said gen4 chan3 haha).
damn may need to change hp no. again.