Thursday, July 9, 2015

oh, peeps

My heart is sad.

One of my new students this week came to me after class and asked if she could talk to me as I seem open. She gave me an out, saying it wasn't at all 'in my interest'. Then when I said, no, no, go on, she put two pregnancy tests on the desk... positive ones. Said one seemed positive, but the other didn't look certain - but, oh it was. So, I said, no, it absolutely was, and gave her a hug as she started to cry.

The poor baby girl is 17, thankfully only a couple weeks pregnant, she knows when it happened. She's 17, and she's meant to be here for another two weeks. Luckily, she's pretty clear on what she wants to do about it, which makes things less complicated, if no less difficult.

So... I sent her off to call her parents, and told her that the thing to do was just go home and let her mum take care of her- she's 17, she's going to terminate the pregnancy, she's going to have more chances to come back and go to language school again. How can she sit here stressed about it for two weeks? It won't work. She doesn't know how her parents will react, but I said this sort of thing maybe takes two phone calls - first the reaction, then secondly the response. All I know is that if it was my baby, I'd want her home being looked after, not stressing out in another country. I can hadly bear it for this girl I don't know, let alone one of my own. 

4 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

I'm so glad she could come to you and so glad you gave her such good, sound advice.
Ah, Jo. Life is hard, isn't it?

Jo said...

It is. True dat. I'm glad she came to me too. And I'm really glad she didn't feel conflicted about her options.

A Japanese student came and asked me about how to buy suppositories for piles the week before last because she'd gone to a chemist that sells more shampoo than medication and they'd told her she needed a prescription. I wish they'd employ me to be camp counsellor instead of teacher, really.

John Going Gently said...

You have a warmth
Thats why she came to u x

Jennifer said...

Poor girl. I'm glad she has you for emotional support, and I hope her parents treat her with tenderness and love.