After spending over a year in our residential treatment program, riding the regular ups and downs of a young man working through significant mental health and relationship issues, Blaine found himself standing before his treatment team, his family, and his peers. He was surrounded by well wishing, shared favorite moments from his time at Intermountain, and hope everyone had for his future as he rejoined his family back home. This was his “graduation ceremony,” of sorts… and while each team or cottage in residential services does this a little differently, most often the graduating child is given a chance to share their words of wisdom with the remaining children in care. Blaine made the most of this opportunity – here is a summary of what he said:
“First, be honest. Be honest with yourself and about why you are here. Be honest with the staff. Share your feelings. Being anything other than honest won’t help you. It didn’t help me. When I started to be honest with what was going on for me, I started to get better.
Second, be nice. None of us want to be here. We’d rather be home. I’m going home and you’ll get there, too. But, for now, this is who you are living with. These are the staff taking care of you. Be nice to them. Be nice to yourself. When someone does something dumb or mean, just be nice. Be nice even when it’s hard.
Third, I’d say you need to have hope. Hope you’ll get done with treatment. Hope you’ll get home eventually. Hope kept me going… well, that and reading (note: his young man had a small library in his room and would read whenever he got the chance!). So, whatever you do, have hope.
Fourth, help one another. This is kinda like what I said about being nice, but goes with it. Work together when you can. It will be more fun if you can help one another. We each have had bad days here, and you have helped me, and I hope I have helped you. So, keep helping one another.
Lastly, I’d say you should be a friend. I didn’t have any friends when I came here. I don’t really have many friends at home. Making friends can be hard, so don’t make it hard on someone who is trying to be your friend. Be a friend. It can just be that you like doing one thing together. Everyone doesn’t have to be your best friend, but be a friend when you can. Some of you I just liked being silly with. Some of you I can be serious with. I like having friends. So, be a friend.”
So take a page from Blaine’s words of wisdom! Be honest. Be Nice. Have hope. Help one another. Be a friend.
I hope the children were listening to these wise words… I certainly was. I hope you will listen, too.
Intermountain brings Hope & Healing to over 1,200 children just like Blaine every day. With God’s grace, Intermountain’s highly-trained staff lead these children to become more resilient, capable, and confident – this not only allows them to return home, but also to be successful in their transitions. Thank you for supporting the work of Intermountain. If you would like to learn how you can help our Hope & Healing continue please reach out: (406)457-4850 or chrish@intermountain.org.
Blessings,
Chaplain Chris Haughee
Click HERE to share this story with your congregation as a bulletin insert
Click here to subscribe to our RSS feed with your favorite email client and be alerted to new articles.