The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXX

Luna Monje
Dawn Austin, Teacher
American School of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Courage doesn’t have an exact definition and it differs from person to person.
I’ll tell you right now, I can’t exactly define courage for you in a few words, but
I say it is much more than being a superhero or even just facing your fear.
I’ve been described as an all-arounder, someone who is good at generally
everything. I’m usually the friend who you can go to with all your worries,
and the friend who could always help you with school. I didn’t mind having
this image at all. In fact, I liked it. Eventually, this image I was living up to
made me feel so pressured that I felt like I needed to be perfect. I couldn’t
make a wrong move, I had to help everyone with everything they came at me
with. I was carrying around the weight of so many people on my shoulders,
and I had no one around to help me.
I was wandering an endless maze. I thought that I would be helping myself if
I helped other people. I remember thinking that I was getting better because
I was “helping” myself by just ignoring my needs entirely. At some point, it
felt like it started to work, but I still had this weight on my shoulders. I had
no idea where the weight was coming from or how to stop it. I figured that it
was the pressure of so many people counting on me. I was so eager to get rid
of this weight, instead of actually focusing on what would genuinely make me
feel better.
Reaching out seems easy, but everyone around me was asking me for help, and
it seemed kind of scary.
I saw and heard what my peers go through every day, but those peers seemed
to fear doing the same for me. Even though I smiled a lot I still felt lonely. I
went through the same process every day, hoping that someone would ask me
“Are you okay?”
I got so sick and tired of waiting for countless hours just for someone to ask
“How are you?” The once bright life of mine had faded, and I was tired of
running alone in this maze. It got so extreme that I couldn’t even handle a
normal conversation without being on the verge of breaking down. I finally
came to a conclusion: I had been wandering for too long, and I had to stop
ignoring myself. I reached out, mustered enough courage to ask someone
for help, and to understand that I can’t do everything by myself. I considered
going to our school counselor, because I felt like I had nowhere else to
go. I spent weeks trying to figure out what I was going to tell the counselor
The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond
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