fandomhigh | Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

//Right then, back to it,// Jono said, arms crossed over his chest and leaning back against the desk as class began. //The syllabus was thrown out a window somewhere around the time I lost my head, but we've got a few weeks left to salvage this thing, so this week we're going to discuss setting goals.//

Good lord, that almost sounded like a legitimate class discussion topic, right there.

//Some changes, you have no control over. But the one thing you can control is your own reaction to that change, and what you do about it. I'm not even saying it's about attitude. I'm saying that if you're dreading a change that's going to happen, you have it in you to take measures to make that change easier on yourself or to influence how the change itself unfolds. And if something has happened, you can make choices, take steps, plan what you need to do in order to heal or get on with your life. The trick is to figure out where you want things to end up, and then figure out the steps you need to take in order to make certain that it happens that way.//

He was actually not so great at this one. But he was learning the appeal of trying, at least.

//I know goals are something that can vary wildly from situation to situation, and it's possible that any one scenario might require dozens of small goals on the way to a larger one, or just one… big one. Try to be realistic about them. If in the wake of getting my head back, my one, sweeping goal was simply 'cope,' I'd have been… very lost.// Yes. This was a true thing. //But if you take 'cope' down and break it into steps, things like 'seek out a trusted friend to talk,' or 'take some time to yourself to appreciate being whole again,' or even, 'seriously, take a few minutes and just have a bloody breakdown, you've earned it,' it doesn't seem like such a ridiculously impossible task.//

He had done all of these things, yes. Jono was at least drawing from life experience, there.

//So today, you're free to talk with the group about your goals. You might want to start with your one big end goal, and then delineate the smaller goals that you might need to reach on your way there. Or set out your big goal and ask your classmates for assistance figuring out what needs to happen in order to get from point A to point B. And, as always, nobody is obligated to talk about anything they aren't comfortable sharing with the class, though remember that this is a safe place. Respect your classmates or you'll be asked to leave. Whether or not you come back depends on how I'm feeling over the next couple of weeks.//

[Open!]

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Celia had started idly twisting her left ring finger halfway through the lecture, clearly nervous even as she was deep in thought, and finally managed to formulate her question a few minutes later.

"Can one's goal be to...not fulfill a goal that's already been outlined?" she ventured, a little shy. She didn't quite know how to even begin to think about it, but...it was tempting. "What I mean to say is -- say a parent has outlined your life's goals already. Mother desperately wants you to become a doctor, or something of that sort. Is the determination to follow your own will, as nebulous as that might be -- can you call that a goal, even if it's not very easily defined as to what that means, yet?"

Her mother didn't want her to become a doctor, obviously, but she'd been giving more and more thought as to how to break the contract. With as much as she'd been learning here...it didn't seem unfeasible.

//I think,// Jono replied, tilting his head at Celia curiously, but deciding not to pry if she wasn't going to volunteer specifics of her own personal situation in front of the class, //that it can very well be a goal, yes. Not to not fulfill a goal, so much as to take control over your own path. Actually, that's a very worthwhile goal to set. Have you any idea where you might start, on your path to not... become a doctor?//

She smiled, a little, pleased that she wasn't actually as out on a limb as she'd initially thought. "I think it'll take research," Celia said thoughtfully. "So I suppose that's where I need to start. And it might help to actually determine another path, wouldn't it, so that I'm not just aimlessly...not doctoring?"

And aside from talking to her father, that part scared her the most, really. All she'd ever known was her training for the challenge.

//Research and time,// Jono replied, nodding his agreement. //And some measure of flexibility. Some people don't figure out what it is they do want to be until well after they've settled into something else. There's no shame in up and changing your path if you've come to the realization that you set yourself down along the wrong one, either.//

The corners of his eyes were betraying the fact that he would have been smiling, then, were he really able.

//Whatever the case might be, you've got the resources to manage it, I think. Research is easy, and you have friends here who can help, right?//

"Sort of," she hedged. "It might be a bit more complicated than...just changing my mind and telling my father about it. I'm magically contracted to do something, and have been since I was five. So it'll take some doing to break the contract, I'd imagine. I'll have to figure out how to do that, and where I can find someone else with magic to help me."

She only knew one other person on the island who was a strong enough magician to help, really. But it might not even matter -- Celia was starting to suspect she was better with her gifts than Hector was with his.

//Ah, magic,// Jono replied, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets and bunching his shoulders a little. //I'm afraid I know next to nothing about that myself, but you're in a good place to start looking for a way out, at least. I know several people with some manner of magic who might be able to help, though magic from different realities tends to interact in unpredictable ways, at times.//

"You absolutely can," Eleanor said, firmly. "For a long time, that was my goal. Not to be what Mother was making me into."

In case any of them had forgotten the abomination that had been creeping them all out in class, a few weeks back.

"I managed it," she added. "That means you can, too."

"It's harder for me," Celia said mildly, though she smiled. "Not that you breaking away from your mother is anything to overlook, not at all, but it's not just a matter of free will, for me. I'll have to do some research on how to break the contract, if there's even a way."

She shrugged. "It's worth trying, though, isn't it?"

"No, I understand," Eleanor said quickly. "It isn't -- it's not the same. I just meant ... you will break free of this. We'll find a way."

The we there might be presumptuous, but it was deliberate.

Coping With Change, Friday, Period 3

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