On Being the Cool Girl

Ok. You can quit laughing now. 

I know what you are thinking. "You aren't cool, Whitney!"

Well, on Tuesday I was. 

For those of you who may not know, I work at a residential treatment facility for girls. I could go on and on about this job but I won't. I'll just fill you in on the basics:

1. I used to work with the 11 to 13 year olds. For like a year and a half. They loved me and I loved them.

2. I switched positions at work because I was tired of my schedule. {5:30am M-F? No thanks!}

3. Now I work with the older girls, 14-19 year olds. I'm scared of them, and they don't know me. They also aren't as lovey and cuddly as the 11 to 13 year olds, but that's neither here nor there.

So, now you are all caught up on my work life.

A very important part of my job is to be authoritative. I have to confront the girls when they are trying to lie about stealing someone's makeup, talking about their time in jail, or doing something more awkward like smearing poop on the bathroom stalls. Yep, you read that right. No, it doesn't happen often.

 

 

 

As you can imagine, trying to be authoritative with teenaged juvenile delinquents is quite tricky. Most of the time they just look at you like you are crazy, make fun of your Texan accent,  and continue doing what they were doing.  Tuesday I was telling my group of 20 girls to be quiet while in line for their medications and to my surprise one of the girls said, "Whitney! Will you sit with us at breakfast?"

Say what?

They like me!?

 

I figured I would sit down at one of their tables and they would just roll their eyes and look at their friends and laugh like, "great, now we can't talk about how we are going to run away after breakfast."

 

    

 

But I got this instead: 

 

 

And you know what? It warmed my heart. They wanted me to sit with them so they could talk to me and get to know me and tell me about their lives and ask about mine. Sometimes that doesn't come so easily in this type of setting. By the time breakfast was over I had my whole table singing We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together quite loudly. Actually, another staff member asked us to quieten down. Oops.

 

I left work that day feeling accepted and like I could maybe actually make a difference in these girls' lives as well. I sure do miss my younger kids and literally want to scoop them up in the biggest hug when I see them, but these older girls might be ok too!