How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
“Not every body gets it.” This was followed by sighs of appreciation in not too many words. For me, it was a good return on the investment of my pain, to hear another young person expressing gratitude for someone understanding the complexity of their emotions. A complexity beyond the acknowledged challenges of understanding the adolescent brain.
I could relate from years of ‘drama’ in my life, with pain that made no sense, when glimmers of reasoning quickly got choked with the dense smoke of irrationality. I had tried the tool of empathy and being understanding, a futile exercise indeed – for how does one understand irrationality?
It gradually became clear to me, there will always be people you cannot help. A greater lesson that I share with young and old:
You may never be able to help some people to change their behaviour, but you can change how it affects you.