Being Famous

Issue 134 is done! The book party is over. My patients did well. They stood and read with trembling hands, but they pulled it off, and then the audience clapped. One of the adolescent boys told me after the book reading that he felt famous standing behind the podium, reading his work, and then he said he felt it again when he was signing books. This comment makes it all worth it. This is why I turn my key in the lock every morning at the psych hospital. I want them to feel greatness.

The boy who said this is being bullied at school. All of his stories are about being bullied. Here’s an excerpt:

My heart is hurting because it’s been through a lot, like being bullied, and then my grandpa died about two years ago. This hurt worse. Then I have to deal with the kids at school who bully me, and the reason my heart is exploding like this picture is because I don’t know what to do about the bullies.

Later, once the adolescents were out of the classroom and back on their unit, I wiped down the tables and straightened the chairs, wondering if he would ever feel famous again. He’s not the smartest kid. He struggles in school. He will repeat the eighth grade next year. He said he repeated second grade because he couldn’t write a complete sentence. But today he did. Today, he was famous.

—Robert