Day in the Life – “School Breaks”

As we near Christmas time, it is also time for school to be out on break as well. For many folks, the holiday or breaks are looked upon as welcomed time off from school. Many folks use the breaks to go on trips, get together with family and friends.

When I first started working as a security guard, I looked forward to the breaks as well. I used to ask the students about break and what they are looking forward to. I got the usual, looking forward to going on a family trip; spending time with family and friends; visiting my family in a different town or state and getting more hours at work – I need the money! It seemed that everyone was excited to be away from school.

I did get some answers that for me were a bit concerning. Some of the students were not looking forward to the break. I was at first puzzled by the answer, so I would ask a few questions to understand better. The answers definitely opened my eyes up to a much different situation that I grew up with or my kids grew up with.

What I heard:

• Some students told me that they don’t have any money to travel, like some of the other students. That they just had to stay home. They did not live near any of the “real” friends. That made getting to visit with those friends very difficult. They shared that they normally just took care of their siblings the whole time. Many made it clear that they loved their siblings, but they had zero time for themselves.
• I heard from a few that they don’t want to be at home. They pointed a very ugly homelife picture. They looked forward to coming to school. For the two meals they got during the day, for the structure day and basically a safe environment.

I knew that every family or living situation was not the same, but I got to see a harsh reality in front of me. Looking into the faces of some of the students as they are telling me, “Why they wanted to not have a break,” just plain hurt.

As we all go into break in the next few days, think about asking your kids, “how are your friends doing? do you want to get together with them sometime over break?” From my experience, I know that there probably is one or two students that having a friend reach out to them, would make a world of difference over the break!