The Need To Double-Check

So, when my dad passed away, I just didn’t tell anyone. Teenagers may need comfort and support, but they don’t want it, or better put, they don’t want to need it. Condolences feel like pity to a teen, and the weak are pitied, not the strong and definitely not the cool. Being a teenager is about emerging confidence and ever-growing empowerment. An expression of pity, no matter how compassionately given, acts like a tail hook to that forward motion of self possession, yanking it back, tethering it, right as kid is feeling the urge to soar.