fandomhigh | Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

Jono was looking a little tired as he stood in front of the students in his classroom today, leaning back against his desk as usual, wrapped in leather up to the nostrils and hair still tousled as though he'd just fallen out of bed. Odds were, he probably had. Was it reassuring at all to know that your teacher had a difficult time pulling it together too, kids?

Nightmares were a bit like that.

//Right, then. Last week I had you all give introductions, and, while sharing a change in your life was optional, most of you did talk a little bit about what you've been through, what you're expecting to go through, or what you're going through now. I'm… actually a little honored that you shared those things in my classroom. Actually accepting that something has changed in your life is a difficult step to take. Opening up and telling it to another person, let alone a group of people, can be bloody terrifying. Like… it becomes real if you admit it aloud. You can't sit in that safe little fantasy bubble forever, of course. Sooner or later you have to just accept that the world around you has become a little different, that family changes or your surroundings are different or you'll never quite look right again when you see yourself in a mirror.//

Getting a little bit personal, Chamber.

//Here's the thing, though. You can sit and say no, nothing's changed, all you like. You can pick and choose what you're willing to accept until you're blue in the face - hell, I very literally did.// And wasn't that a story for another day. //But you can't really move on with your life, you can't begin to heal from a change, until you finally stare it in the face and acknowledge that it happened. I want to spend the next few weeks covering that notion, that idea that coping with change doesn't start until you've squared your shoulders and decided to confront it.//

Jono had gotten better about that one, over the years. He'd had more opportunities to get it right than most people should ever have had to see. And some of them had been flat-out ugly.

//When it all really comes down to it, nobody has control over how you cope with a serious change except for you. You're the one with the power to accept or deny the truth, you're the one who makes the choice to begin to deal with it, whatever that might entail. You can choose to prepare yourself for a change you know is resting on the horizon, or to bury your head in the sand while the sky falls around you in the hopes that maybe it'll go away on its own. And trust me, it very rarely chooses to go away on its own.//

He drummed his fingers against the top of his desk just once, and then shrugged his shoulders.

//This week, I want you to all focus not on what you can't do or can't accept, but what you can. Let's talk about what you can bring to the table. I want you to think about things you've used in the past in order to help yourself come to terms with something that's changed in your life, things you can do that bring you peace or make you feel empowered. It can be a talent you've cultivated through your life, a bit of knowledge that you've picked up over the years, a power that you have that you've found useful before. Take me for example. I'm a mutant. By some twisted quirk of fate, the same mutation that robbed me of a mouth just happened to give me telepathy to communicate with. I'm a musician. I can't sing anymore, but I do play guitar. It helps me to relax on days that have been especially overwhelming. Helps me not think too hard when I've been mulling over the hard truths for so long it hurts. I'm a fighter. I was always up for a good pub brawl when I was younger, but these days I mean it more in that, 'if somebody is threatening my life, I can do something about it' sense. And if all else fails, I can probably blow it up with my face. No, you don't get a demonstration.//

Not today, at least.

//I know, this might seem a bit like jumping the gun, leaping straight to possible tools for finding solutions before even getting into how to come to accept the truth about the change in your life, but it all ties in. Believe it or not, when you familiarize yourself with what you're capable of, when you take a moment to actually explore what it is you can control in your life, you might be able to feel a little less helpless in the face of those things that were beyond your control to begin with. So… have at it. Take a moment to take inventory of your personal arsenal. I'd love if you felt comfortable sharing with the class- Perhaps one of you will list something that another person never stopped to consider a strength of their own, even if it is. But sharing, as always, is optional. I just want you to be aware of what you can do, however small or insignificant it might seem.//

[Open!]

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//In that moment, you're not so much falling as flying,// Jono agreed. //It's closer than most people ever get.//

You know, unless you developed nifty powers or stole and reverse-engineered some super-advanced tech or became a pilot or something like that.

Yeah, none of those were on Kathy's list of things to do, but she'd keep them in mind.

"That's pretty much the time when I feel most free," she admitted. "Nothing can touch me then."

//And then you land and the only thing for it is to launch yourself back into the air again?//

Jonothon's own flight experiences had been somewhat more sustained, but he remembered training with Jubilee, getting that taste for keeping active even without his collar to help him along. He suspected he wasn't capable of half of what Kathy was, since she seemed to have some sort of formal training and he mostly just learned how not to get punched in the face, but a taste had been enough to get some idea of what he was talking about now.

//Do you only do your gymnastics for the escape of it?//

Edited 2014-01-17 06:36 (UTC)

"I also compete," Kathy said. "Or, well, I mean, I used to. Back home. At, like, a regional scale, not state-wide or anything."

Because she didn't want anyone to think she was bragging.

//Sounds like something to take pride in,// Jono noted, still pleasantly. He wasn't here to judge any one of his students for sharing what kept them going. Gymnastics as an escape and as a point of pride were far healthier than some of his coping methods had been. //Ever bring home any medals?//

Kathy was ducking and blushing now.

She nodded, trying to keep the proud smile from overtaking her face the way it was threatening to. "I left 'em all at home, though. I thought it would be weird to bring them across the country just to look at or something."

//There's nothing the matter with having a reminder on hand of something that you can be proud of,// Jono noted, shrugging. //I'm not entirely certain if the entire senior class my graduating year had been into the punch before voting or what, but I won prom king, once. You better believe when I'm planning on putting down roots in a place for a while, that stupid bloody crown comes with me.//

Tiara. Whatever.

Totally a tiara.

"Well, it kind of seems like showing off," Kathy said. "I thought about bringing them, but it felt too much like I wanted something that yelled, 'Look what I can do!' to anyone who saw them."

//Well, do you wear them around? What do you do with them at home?//

This was important, Kathy. Really.

"The medals are pinned to my wall at home or in frames," Kathy said. "The trophies are up on shelves. But back home, no one sees my room. Except, you know, my family."

Kathy was kind of...short on friends, back home.

"Besides, it's one thing to put medals up where you win them. But, like, transporting them across the country? It just seemed weird."

//Fair enough. I hadn't realized there were so many.// He shrugged again. //Still, I'm going to maintain, there's nothing the matter with having some sort of reminder of what you've accomplished, and nothing the matter with displaying those accomplishments in your personal space. If you're concerned about it looking like a brag, odds are, you're not really the sort to be bragging in the first place, and it isn't something you ought to worry about.//

He suspected that the people who were allowed into her personal space already knew well enough that she wasn't the type to rub her accomplishments into people's face, by the time she let them past her door.

"Oh! No, I don't mean like that!" Kathy said hastily. "It's just, I've been, y'know, doing this for awhile. Even if you get two medals a year, over ten years, that's still twenty awards."

Because heaven forbid someone should think that Kathy was good at something that she'd been working at for over a decade now or something.

Oh, Kathy. Kathy, honey.

//Whoa, whoa,// Jono held up his hands. //You've worked hard to be good at what you do, luv. I wasn't accusing you of bragging. Accomplishments pile up. Hell, that's a good thing.//

Self-esteem, girl. Jono knew all about battling with a lack of that.

//It shows dedication. Passion. If you didn't want to be doing what you do, you wouldn't have so much to show for it, would you?//

"Well, err..." Kathy didn't really have an answer to his comment. "Thank you? But, yeah, like I said before. I really love it. And, you know. Enthusiasm can help a lot. And dedication. Talent doesn't mean much without those."

She was just babbling now, yup.

Jono wasn't going to let himself look too amused by the babbling, really.

//Enthusiasm and dedication are both also things you could've answered this discussion question with,// he noted, giving her a bit of a lifeline. //If you look closely enough at your likes and hobbies, it really says a lot about what you've got to work with, you know. Dedication. That's fantastic.//

Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

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