Chess

So, today I had quite the eye opener. I went with Lisa to do a home visit with one of her clients (I'll call him Carter). He's 11 and in sixth grade. He lives in a foster home for male sex offenders so she likes to take him out to do something fun every other month. This month, she wanted to take him to the library. So, I was kind of nervous about it. I've never met this boy, but I have heard about some of the things he's done. He's done some pretty terrible things to his sisters in the past which is why he's in foster care. I didn't think spending an afternoon at the library with a young sex offender would be very enjoyable, but I figured that it was part of the job.

So, we got to the library and there was this huge to do because even though Lisa is Carter's legal guardian since he's in the custody of the state, she doesn't live with him and the librarians didn't know if he was allowed to get his own card. So, Lisa was sorting that out and I was left alone with Carter. I was worried about the awkwardness. But, it wasn't awkward at all. He wasn't sure what books he would like to read and I told him about the Animorph books which he was pretty excited about. After Lisa came back, we went up to look at the Animorph books. There was a library chess club thing going on. Carter asked Lisa to play chess; she didn't know how so I played instead. And it was so much fun! We were laughing and having a lot of fun. Of course he was enjoying himself because even though I tried my best, I lost spectacularly (which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has ever played chess with me.) But, overall, it was a great afternoon. Carter asked Lisa if I would come along to the next fun visit which made me feel good.

So, I feel like I really learned something. This little boy wasn't a hardened, mean child. He's a little boy who's had bad influences in his life and has made some big mistakes. I feel deep concern for his welfare now and wish him the best. I feel ashamed for not wanting to spend time with him in the first place. I think I learned a lot.