You. Are. Loved.

So, here is the deal...
I wish with all my heart that I could ensure that every girl I come in contact with feels beautiful. Beyond that, every person I see on a regular basis needs to feel special and loved. Working with these kids everyday is just cementing the idea that when no one seems to care, kids will do ANYTHING to get attention.

It is so frustrating to see and hear these little girls talk about how "fat"and how "ugly" they are. These girls, these beautiful perfect works of art, sit for hours and argue about who is the fattest. No one calls them pretty. No one says that they are beautiful inside and out. No one tells them how much potential they have.

I see so many kids that are the product of divorced families. Most of these kids are so incredibly lost that parents drag them off to a doctor to diagnose them with a mental illness. I've got five kids that are diagnosed with OCD. They call it OCD because they compulsively worry. I would fucking worry too if everything I know gets ripped away from me and Mommy and Daddy are arguing and pitting me against one another. No fucking way they are lost.

And still, no one listens to them.

There is a quote that Marilyn Manson gave in an interview. While he was being blamed somehow,someway for the Columbine shootings, a reporter asked him what he would say to the victims, families, shooters, and survivors of the shootings. He replied that he would not say anything at all. He would purely listen, and that's what no one did.

That's what we are coming to now. No one is listening to these kids. Some of these kids have never seen anything other than how to collect welfare and college is absolutely unheard of. They see no potential in themselves because their parents failed to see it in their own lives. I have one kid, I see so much in this kid. He is one of the kindest, sweetest kids I have ever met. His parents are divorced and he's living kind of rough. I drove him home from camp one day that he got hurt and we talked about futures. No one has ever talked to him about maybe doing vo-tech, looking for scholarships, or even mentioned college to him. In the words of the guidance counselor of years past, "Every town needs a ditch digger."

There is nothing wrong with being a ditch digger. There is nothing wrong with working retail for your whole life. Whatever makes you happen. But don't pidgeon-hole the damn kid. Give him all the options. Listen to him. Find out what he wants to do and where he wants to be and then give him the resources to do it. Don't count him out as a lost cause just because his grades are not stellar (nobody pushing him to succeed), or because his family isn't financially well off (completely out of his control) or because he gets in trouble for fighting(defending a friend and proving himself to be loyal).

It makes me physically ill to watch these kids slip thru the cracks. These kids are wonderful. Absolutely beautiful kids. Every single one of them. But small town school districts see nothing but their last name, their family history and their PSSA scores. Fuck that.

I know nobody reads this, but if for whatever reason you have stumbled across this, this is for you. You are beautiful. You have more potential than you will ever know what to do with. If you are bored, you are not trying hard enough. Quit forgetting that you are loved. Even if it's just by your damn dog. You are important to someone. Please find someone to listen to you. You will make a difference in this world. You are loved.