the child, and the teenager

the middle schooler

middle school:

enter as a child—exuberant, trusting, open, young,

leave as a teenager—empowered, doubting, absorbed in self and other,

a 10 year old finds a picture and gives it to a 13 year old,

of course she’ll want a photograph of herself,

the 13 year old carefully tears the photo into pieces,

no snapshot of physical self,

no matter how pretty,

can compete with the doubting fears

that beset the adolescent soul,

I love middle schoolers

the power into which they are maturing, though,

is matched by the plague of self-doubt that comes along, too,

the closing that comes right along with the opening,

I feel for them, and for the part of me that parallels that effort,

our goal is to help each find a balance

between the child and the adult within,

to remember how to believe

while remembering also how to doubt,

to see the glass as both half-full and half-empty,

and to then find the way to fill it further.

by Henry H. Walker

June 3, ‘16