Jon's April Update

Celebrating with a student, who almost gave up on her art piece believing it wasn't good enough.

  Meghan has dark hair, bright eyes, and a warm smile. She likes animals, the obscure reptiles especially, and will always look you in the eye and engage in conversation with you. Typically, whenever I see her walking down the hallways these days she’s quick to smile and say hello before
continuing on with her day.

  Meghan used to attend our programs quite faithfully last year. We have had a lot of good conversations and she has shared some meaningful connections with myself and other staff members. She would sometimes participate in our art projects, but mostly was just happy hanging out on the couches and chatting with other friends, volunteers, or my coworkers. Slowly over the course of the year her social circles started changing, she started getting busier at school, picked up a job as a hostess, and we saw less and less of her around.

  Demographics constantly change and that’s normal. Sometimes seeing less of a student is a good thing as it means they’ve come to a place where their lives look healthier physically, emotionally, socially, intellectually, and spiritually- which is our goal for not just Meghan but all the youth in Langley.

  The other day while at the school I had finished spending lunch with a bunch of guys and Meghan wandered into my room. I thought it was a little bit odd, seeing that lately our relationship mostly consisted of ‘hellos’. She sat down and, like normal, said hi. I figured something more must be going on for her to just wander in like this, so I asked her the question; “how have you been doing lately?” She went on to tell me about what was one of the worst nights of her life.

  I’ll spare the details of what happened because, although hard and sad, it is beside the point. What struck me about this is that even after all this time, she knew that we still cared. She knew that there was someone to turn to when things were bad. And, quite literally being enabled by you - my community and support base, she knew that I would be on her turf and able to meet her on the school grounds where she’s at.

  Thanks for being there with me. I am thankful that together we can create opportunities and open continuous doors of support for teens in Langley, like with my friend Meghan.

- Jon Pue