At long last, the FBI finally gave Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island the green light on me not being a psychopath, sex offender, or terrorist, which means all systems are go for me to enter the BBBSLI program. So today, BBBSLI called to tell me about a Little Brother they had in mind for me.
The first words out of my case worker's mouth were, "He's one of our more challenging children," and then she went into a long list of what those challenges are. The kid has been through everything from an alcoholic drop-out "inappropriate" father, to living in a group home because his mother is frequently hospitalized. It was jaw-dropping to hear about his life and all his hardships and troubles and how his main goal is to boost his self-esteem so he can help his mom. And he's only 14. It's crazy that there are real kids like this out there. You hear these stories and think they're made for TV, but here I am getting a call to be a part of this kid's non-TV life.
I think the case worker is expecting me to get scared away and ask for a different Little, and I get until Friday to decide if I want to be this kid's Big, but I think I've already made up my mind that I absolutely want to be matched with him. My heart was already going out to him even before the caseworker went into the list of positive things about him, which are, among other things: he's into reading and science, is super smart (college reading level), and very insightful, and kind of awkward and nerdy (which were originally in the "negatives" column, but I've re-appropriated them).
So I'm going to take the next two days to digest everything. It's all a jumble in my head right now. But I expect to say yes on Friday and then they'll tell the kid they've got a potential Big for him, and if he's interested in me, we'll get to meet and see how it goes from there. I'm totally psyched. Super psyched. Mega psyched.
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4 comments:
congrats. that sounds challenging for you and like an excellent opportunity for the both of you. Ar eyou guys going to go see Al Gore's movie?
If it's still playing somewhere close enough, and if he wants to see it, then I'd definitely take him. It was a great movie and there'd be a lot to talk about afterwards.
My big fear is that Long Island in general is boring, and I don't want to spend my time with this kid just playing video games.
Right now I'm looking for all the low-cost activities I can find. And I'm trying to find places that will let us do stuff for free; like, I know some people attached to the new aquarium in Riverhead, so I'm hoping they'll give us a free pass. Plus the BBBS people say they have a lot of suggestions. I hope so.
There are 8 other kids living in the group home with him, so maybe if they're nerdy enough we can play some D&D on occasion!
D&D. Isn't that a satanic ritual?
BBBS isn't a Christian organization, so Satanism is acceptable.
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