Getting Some Perspective

After my last blog post, some of my readers (okay, friends - I admit all of my "readers" are personal friends - the masses don't know about me yet) were concerned that I was feeling lonely in Seattle. Don't worry friends! I'm okay! A fairly solitary person by nature, I'm fine. You won't find me crying anywhere in or around Seattle. Many people might not know this about me, but I spent my sophomore & junior years of high school at a dreadful private school in Connecticut where I was miserable.

I refer to the snooty prep school as dreadful because the school was populated by rich kids, many who drove Beemers to school, and I felt at age 15 that I was the only virgin in the school who wasn't snorting coke. I don't want my parents to feel bad when they read this, as they spent a lot of money sending me and my brother to this school. It wasn't all bad. In fact, I learned a lot. After spending grades 3 through 9 in the same public school system, I was terribly lonely when I arrived at St. Pukes (really, St. Lukes). In addition to the education being first-rate, I also learned a lot about self-reliance. My mother told me years later that she was impressed I tolerated the place, even though I was very unhappy.

So what I'm trying to say is that those couple of years of character building served me well. They toughened me up. They taught me to enjoy my own company. Really, not much can get me down at this point. What I'm trying to say is, don't worry about me being sad in Seattle with the less than exuberant, unfriendly folk. I'll be just fine. I'll persevere.

Back in December, the President & CEO at my new job (who happens to be a member of the local Kiwanis chapter), invited everyone to the Kiwanis Holiday Potluck which was held in our boardroom. While I admit, the idea of hobnobbing with the Kiwanis' wasn't super enticing, the free food was. You should've seen the spread! Baked ham, salad, desserts galore! It was impossible not to salivate as I walked by the spread laid out on a table in our hallway. Who could resist!? I sure couldn't!

The next thing you know, I'm shoveling in the ham while singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with a roomful of Kiwanis, holding up a sign every time we got to my line in the song which I believe was "Three French Hens." It was a blast. The head honcho, a man named Mike, sat me and my co-worker next to him at his table. The other reason I was at this luncheon, in addition to the free food, was to sell raffle tickets for a 9L bottle of wine that was donated to my November wine event. Tickets were $50 a pop and I still had about 30 or so to unload. Sitting next to Mike was handy as I could ask him to make an announcement to the room. Even Mike, himself, pulled out a 100-dollar bill and wished me luck.

Mike and I chatted and we started talking about education. It turns out his wife taught Special Ed for 4 years and as some of you may or may not know, I also taught Special Ed. Middle School. I know. I'm still alive. We were saying how boring school is and he mentioned that his wife was looking for volunteers at the elementary school where she works and asked if he could pass my name along. Long story short, I am now a volunteer at her school.

Yesterday was my second meeting with my "lunch buddy." While I wasn't sure what I signing up for when I first met Mike, when I spoke to his wife Mary I was under the impression that I'd be having lunch once a week with a foreign student who needed practice with their English. When I arrived at the school last week for the first time, I found out that Mary is the school Family Advocate and that Destiny needs a friend.

Things at home are rough and at 9 or 10 years old, the poor kid needs someone to tell her it's okay to relax and have fun and just hang out. I can do that. Fun is my middle name. Funny, it's taken me a while  to get there. I was a lot less fun as a younger person, ironically.

During our first lunch, I asked Destiny some questions about school to get the ball rolling and to break the ice. She mentioned a kid from her class and I asked if so-and-so was her friend? Then came the kicker: Destiny told me that she doesn't have any friends in her class. I asked her how long she'd been at the school and she told me since Kindergarten. I now have a mission - to help find a friend for this kid.

I figured if I could survive a year of high school with hardly any friends due to a transition to a dreadful place, I can hopefully help find a friend for a 4th grader. Wish me luck. That kid from the book fair - he's so being targeted.