Big Brothers Big Sisters
*Raises flaming flag* This is my article for the december issue of Today's Teen and I think you should all read it-- not because it's my article, because you should all be MENTORS. Check it...
Big Brothers Big Sisters
by Ilana Jacqueline / Today's Teen -- December Issue
Step one you say we need to talk / He walks, you say sit down it's just a talk/ He smiles politely back at you /You stare politely right on through /Some sort of window to your right /As he goes left and you stay right /Between the lines of fear and blame /And you begin to wonder why you came
Everyone has heard How To Save a Life, the hit song by The Fray. It’s laced with beautiful piano, a harmonious beat, and a hypnotic passionate voice. Maybe you’ve downloaded it on your iPod and use it as background music as you jog. Maybe you’ve got it blasting from your computer as you finish up calculus homework. Either way, you’ve all heard the song. But have you heard the lyrics?
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend /Somewhere along in the bitterness /And I would have stayed up with you all night /Had I known how to save a life
One summer, while working at a camp for troubled teens Issac Slade, who would later become The Fray’s lead singer, met a boy deep into recreational drugs and alcohol. Many had approached the teen with efforts to save him.
“They would come against him, like an enemy.” Issac said in an interview, “and he told me all he wanted was for someone to come alongside him and be a friend, a helper, a companion almost. Just someone who was on his team, and he never really got that, you know? And it really made me think about my approach to somebody else and how I would want someone to approach me as, if I was doing something wrong.”
Let him know that you know best/ Cause after all you do know best /Try to slip past his defense/ Without granting innocence /Lay down a list of what is wrong /The things you've told him all along /And pray to God he hears you
Issac Slade hasn’t ever performed life-saving surgery. He hasn’t run into a burning building to save a trapped child. Even so, with a small act of compassion Issac Slade has saved a life.
While a select few of us are piled with life-saving conversations on a weekly basis, some of us are never granted the ability to shock someone out of complacency, to pull someone out of confusion, to grant them a clearer view of the world. Someone of us will never change a life. Some of us will never save a life.
Community service may seem like a chore to teenagers. And to some teens, all that’s important is to get as many as hours as they can, give universities the impression that they’re good people, and move on with their lives. I can almost grant this understanding, I can almost see how some people can believe that what they say and what they do and the conversations they have and the advice they give is ineffectual to anyone. These people, more than those who have had nothing given to them, but everything hard earned, are the ones in need of life-saving.
If you are a person who believes that they know where they’re going. Someone who can see through the thicket of issues layered like burly fabric on top of the latest fashions- someone who believes that there are lives out there to change. I believe I might have something to interest you.
It’s called being a mentor and it’s something that Issac Slade knew could make a difference in today’s world. One of the leading organizations for youth mentoring is Big Brothers Big Sisters. Since 1904 this organization has brought together those who can give and those who can receive with astonishing results.
A study done in 1992 and 1993 proved that 46% of children in the program were less likely to begin using illegal drugs. 27 % were less likely to begin using alcohol. 52 % were less likely to skip school, and 36% less likely to skip a class. There was a marked improvement about performance in schoolwork. One-third were less likely to hit someone. And most got along better with their families.
This is the effect a little guidance can have in someone’s life. It doesn’t take much more than friendship, companionship, a little attention to change the life of someone else. Be aware of the difference you can make, of the difference you have made. Get involved- save a life.
To find out more go to bbbs.org or call 888-412-BIGS.
Big Brothers Big Sisters
by Ilana Jacqueline / Today's Teen -- December Issue
Step one you say we need to talk / He walks, you say sit down it's just a talk/ He smiles politely back at you /You stare politely right on through /Some sort of window to your right /As he goes left and you stay right /Between the lines of fear and blame /And you begin to wonder why you came
Everyone has heard How To Save a Life, the hit song by The Fray. It’s laced with beautiful piano, a harmonious beat, and a hypnotic passionate voice. Maybe you’ve downloaded it on your iPod and use it as background music as you jog. Maybe you’ve got it blasting from your computer as you finish up calculus homework. Either way, you’ve all heard the song. But have you heard the lyrics?
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend /Somewhere along in the bitterness /And I would have stayed up with you all night /Had I known how to save a life
One summer, while working at a camp for troubled teens Issac Slade, who would later become The Fray’s lead singer, met a boy deep into recreational drugs and alcohol. Many had approached the teen with efforts to save him.
“They would come against him, like an enemy.” Issac said in an interview, “and he told me all he wanted was for someone to come alongside him and be a friend, a helper, a companion almost. Just someone who was on his team, and he never really got that, you know? And it really made me think about my approach to somebody else and how I would want someone to approach me as, if I was doing something wrong.”
Let him know that you know best/ Cause after all you do know best /Try to slip past his defense/ Without granting innocence /Lay down a list of what is wrong /The things you've told him all along /And pray to God he hears you
Issac Slade hasn’t ever performed life-saving surgery. He hasn’t run into a burning building to save a trapped child. Even so, with a small act of compassion Issac Slade has saved a life.
While a select few of us are piled with life-saving conversations on a weekly basis, some of us are never granted the ability to shock someone out of complacency, to pull someone out of confusion, to grant them a clearer view of the world. Someone of us will never change a life. Some of us will never save a life.
Community service may seem like a chore to teenagers. And to some teens, all that’s important is to get as many as hours as they can, give universities the impression that they’re good people, and move on with their lives. I can almost grant this understanding, I can almost see how some people can believe that what they say and what they do and the conversations they have and the advice they give is ineffectual to anyone. These people, more than those who have had nothing given to them, but everything hard earned, are the ones in need of life-saving.
If you are a person who believes that they know where they’re going. Someone who can see through the thicket of issues layered like burly fabric on top of the latest fashions- someone who believes that there are lives out there to change. I believe I might have something to interest you.
It’s called being a mentor and it’s something that Issac Slade knew could make a difference in today’s world. One of the leading organizations for youth mentoring is Big Brothers Big Sisters. Since 1904 this organization has brought together those who can give and those who can receive with astonishing results.
A study done in 1992 and 1993 proved that 46% of children in the program were less likely to begin using illegal drugs. 27 % were less likely to begin using alcohol. 52 % were less likely to skip school, and 36% less likely to skip a class. There was a marked improvement about performance in schoolwork. One-third were less likely to hit someone. And most got along better with their families.
This is the effect a little guidance can have in someone’s life. It doesn’t take much more than friendship, companionship, a little attention to change the life of someone else. Be aware of the difference you can make, of the difference you have made. Get involved- save a life.
To find out more go to bbbs.org or call 888-412-BIGS.