Kate Gregson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vanillajello) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2014-06-17 03:17 pm
vanillajello) wrote in fandomhigh2014-06-17 03:17 pm
Entry tags:
How to Be Awesome, Tuesday, Period 3
For the last time, the class was meeting in a regular classroom, with Kate perched on the edge of her desk because she just couldn't sit behind it. Just couldn't. There was also a basketful of muffins next to her. "Okay, wow, if I have things right, this is already our last session," she started. She was pretty sure she'd looked at the calendar right on this point. "So... I wanna leave you with one last lesson, and a little discussion, and some muffins, and then we'll be done here."
She crossed her legs at the knee and swung the top one a little bit. "Okay, so, this is gonna be a little personal because sometimes that's just necessary to make a point. And that point is about trying to discern the awesome from situations even when they seem like there's none. See, I grew up in an occasionally messy environment. My mom has a pretty bad case of dissociative identity disorder – and yeah, if you're thinking multiple personalities right now, that's exactly it. And sometimes when I was a kid, she was better, and sometimes she was worse, and my family got a lot of unwanted attention from it and like everyone at my school knew me and my little brother were the kids with the crazy mom or whatever. So, it was pretty hard and pretty unawesome in a lot of ways."
She twisted her lips and shrugged.
"And it was really hard to see the awesome parts of it. But they were there. My family was pretty messed up, but we all loved each other. We had problems but we still stuck together." Most of the time. It wasn't worth it to get into some of the bigger messes they'd had. "There was still awesome there, even with all the useless crap that made me want to run away. And, you know, then I came here and I stuck around for two years as a student at ths school, and there were times here, too, that were pretty fu–– freaking unawesome." Understatement. "Like, a choice moment would be the time one of my friends got turned into a vampire and kind of tried to end me. There was a kind of a stalking element to that and it was pretty much the worst. But, in retrospect, because of that I also made friends with a demigod who taught me how to handle a knife and we became super close friends, and I got way more confidence in being able to handle whatever crazy stuff Fandom threw at me after that."
She paused.
"So what I'm saying is, even when shit is really grim and dark, there's always a chance you can take something positive away from it. Like, even if it's a really tiny thing. Just try to find something. You'll feel better." She hoped they did, anyway. It kind of worked for her but she knew it wasn't easy. She clasped her hands together, then gestured at the basket next to her. "Okay! That was the lecture. Now, I want you to talk a bit about what, if anything, you think you've learned during this workshop, annnd how you think you think you'll be viewing awesomeness in your life from now on. And when we're done, you can all take a Muffin of Triumph to take with you, because you've earned it for being a fun group of students."
[Warning for some minor discussion of mental illness etc. under the cut.]
She crossed her legs at the knee and swung the top one a little bit. "Okay, so, this is gonna be a little personal because sometimes that's just necessary to make a point. And that point is about trying to discern the awesome from situations even when they seem like there's none. See, I grew up in an occasionally messy environment. My mom has a pretty bad case of dissociative identity disorder – and yeah, if you're thinking multiple personalities right now, that's exactly it. And sometimes when I was a kid, she was better, and sometimes she was worse, and my family got a lot of unwanted attention from it and like everyone at my school knew me and my little brother were the kids with the crazy mom or whatever. So, it was pretty hard and pretty unawesome in a lot of ways."
She twisted her lips and shrugged.
"And it was really hard to see the awesome parts of it. But they were there. My family was pretty messed up, but we all loved each other. We had problems but we still stuck together." Most of the time. It wasn't worth it to get into some of the bigger messes they'd had. "There was still awesome there, even with all the useless crap that made me want to run away. And, you know, then I came here and I stuck around for two years as a student at ths school, and there were times here, too, that were pretty fu–– freaking unawesome." Understatement. "Like, a choice moment would be the time one of my friends got turned into a vampire and kind of tried to end me. There was a kind of a stalking element to that and it was pretty much the worst. But, in retrospect, because of that I also made friends with a demigod who taught me how to handle a knife and we became super close friends, and I got way more confidence in being able to handle whatever crazy stuff Fandom threw at me after that."
She paused.
"So what I'm saying is, even when shit is really grim and dark, there's always a chance you can take something positive away from it. Like, even if it's a really tiny thing. Just try to find something. You'll feel better." She hoped they did, anyway. It kind of worked for her but she knew it wasn't easy. She clasped her hands together, then gestured at the basket next to her. "Okay! That was the lecture. Now, I want you to talk a bit about what, if anything, you think you've learned during this workshop, annnd how you think you think you'll be viewing awesomeness in your life from now on. And when we're done, you can all take a Muffin of Triumph to take with you, because you've earned it for being a fun group of students."
[Warning for some minor discussion of mental illness etc. under the cut.]
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