Incline Village, NV is a gorgeous town on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. My NET team facilitated a confirmation retreat at the catholic parish in town during my first year with NET. It was scheduled to be an overnight retreat, and I was standing just outside the main doors of the church as the high school kids began to arrive - trying to greet them with some enthusiasm as their parents dropped them off.
I watched her get out of the passenger side of her mom's car. The two of them walked through the parking lot toward the church, and I'm sure I said something humerous in an effort to make the kid feel better about the fact that she was getting ready to spend her entire weekend at chuch.
Whatever I said did not work. That kid stared at me with a look that said "leave me the hell alone, lady".....and her mom tried to smile - you know the smile - it's the oh-my-god-i've-failed-as-a-parent-and-everyone-knows-it smile. I smiled back - held the door for them, and went on to greet more kids as they continued to arrive.
This kid's mood did not improve, and soon she ended up by herself in the room where the girls would be sleeping. A couple of my teammated tried to get the kid to rejoin the retreat in the other room, but this girl wouldn't budge. And that's when I decided to give it a try.....
You might think I'm going to tell you that I was able to talk her into taking her headphones off, put the music away, and come back to the retreat......but that's not what happened.
I went in to chat with her - I asked her to pause the music for a bit......we talked for a few minutes, and it became clear to me that there was no way she was going to change her mind. So after agreeing to call her mom to come and get her, I told her that even though she completely blew me off when I had tried being nice to her when she had first walked into the church, that there was something about her that I liked a lot, and I didn't know why.
And by God, she smiled.
She actually looked me in the eyes. And smiled.
Fast forward one year. In an uncommon move, I ended up returning to several locations during my second year with NET......Incline Village was one of them. And that same mom brought her son. I recognized mom right away - went up to her - told her I remembered her daughter from the year before. She immediately started apologizing for her daughter's behavior....I shook my head and told her that I had actaully enjoyed her daughter even though things didn't end as well as they could have ended, and I asked how that daughter was doing.
I found out that had finished high school early and was working for one of the local resorts. Since I had the following day off, I decided to drive down to that resort to see if I could say hello.
She was working at the front desk - her head was down looking at a piece of paper. I walked up to the desk. She looked up, smiled, and said "oh my god - you're back!"
The whole point of this story is to remind you that you really can make a difference in people's lives. A little bit of kindness and respect can create change.
I don't know where that kid is anymore, but I hope she's doing well....and I hope she's happy.
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