I Wonder What Happened To B

B was one of those students. We all have them throughout our teaching careers. B was one of those students who after experiencing life in a certain way, have decided to set the world on fire. It has been 4 years now and after he has moved away, I wonder what happened to him.

A Bit About B

B came from a family that went through tough times. His family was much better at the time when I met him. However, it is possible that those experiences have scarred him. When I first took over control of B's class, I was warned about him by my predecessors.

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Many called B different names. Some called him the devil, others called him the bane to their existence. Some even called him the sanity drainer. However, I was confident and little did I know what trouble I was getting into.

The first day I met B, he was great, he listened and was a darling. I suspected that perhaps some of the other teachers were making it up. B however, only started showing his true colors after a few days. My guess was that he was observing me to see how I would react to different situations.

There were many things he did. He distributed cigarette openly to his friends in class. He took some of them to a nightclub. Since they were underage, they were caught. The parents made the school aware of the situation and I was ordered to counsel him.

What Have I Learnt From B

You probably would have guessed that me counseling him had no effect. When I started talking to him he just stared at me. In the end, he pointed out that me talking to him changes nothing as no one cares. It was at this point that I realize that me talking to him was not going to help at all.

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I started spending more time with him. Going out of course did not involve going to the club, despite him inviting me many times. We talked but eventually, his family had to leave the country. There were a few lessons that I have learned from this.

The first being that no words of wisdom do no good. If you want a child to listen, the only way to do so is with time. As such, I had to invest a lot of time in gaining his trust. It was only through gaining his trust that I could speak into his life.

The second lesson is that patience is a choice. There were many times that I felt like yelling at him or figuratively killing him. However, I had to remind myself that doing so would destroy any relationship that I have built with him.

Conclusion

I think we all have our share of challenges but for me, B takes the cake. I do not hate him and we left on good terms. However, I do wish him well. I think the next time that do meet him again, I would like to thank him for making me the teacher I am today. So despite all the headache and stress, he has caused me, I am still happy to have had him as my student.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://alvinauh.vornix.blog/2019/02/11/i-wonder-what-happened-to-b/

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