Teens July 3, 2017 Issue

‘I asked God what to do’

Hannah Warrick

One night at camp I was asked to “babysit” a cabin of young campers while their counselor was in a meeting. About ten minutes after I thought everyone was asleep, I looked up from my book to see one girl standing beside my bed crying. She wanted her counselor. I asked if I could help her, but she was very persistent about wanting to talk to her counselor.

At first I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want to send her back to bed crying. Then I had the idea to have her share what she was grateful for, and the highlights of her day. She told me all about horseback riding, and I asked why she loved it so much. Immediately the tears were back. “Oh no,” I thought. “I’m not helping her at all.”

“I love horseback riding because it reminds me of my mom.” That was the problem: She missed her mom. I felt overwhelmed with doubt about whether I could help her because homesickness wasn’t something I’d struggled with.

Send a comment to the editors