Never, Never, Never Give Up

Luke and I sat in my school counselor's office for likely the last time. It was the beginning of summer and Luke was saying goodbye. He had earned his high school diploma and was moving on. We had celebrated as a school just a few days before when he and his classmates walked across the stage in the commencement ceremony.

Luke was visibly emotional and teary. He admitted to his mixed feelings of excitement, sadness, and fear as he was looking ahead to this next chapter of his life. Luke awkwardly stumbled through his words as he thanked me for the support I had provided to him through the past three years of his sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school.

We reflected on his hard work and efforts to get through the hard things he had faced during these years.

We had sat in this space of my office together, easily over one hundred times. Luke endured many struggles through this time, unique to his life circumstances. He struggled with loneliness, sadness, depression, trauma, and persistent learning challenges. While Luke had family, he was more or less on his own to navigate his world of education and higher education aspirations. For this reason, Luke relied on his school support team over his family. I was on his team.

There were many days when Luke cried in my office while his body would slump down in the chair next to my desk; his shoulders hunched over as if he held the weight of the world. At first, he would sit silently; but he eventually learned how to express his feelings through words. Then Luke would stand up again and walk out my door-- to begin again-- to face the next challenge in front of him. There were many moments when I worried that he might not pass his classes and reach graduation. There were days he avoided meeting with me; we went for long stretches of time without communication. He seemed to need to experiment with avoidance-- just to see if the hard things might go away. They didn't go away. Eventually, he would reply to my email messages, texts, or respond to my notes sent to him in class; and he would return to my office to see me once again.

I had a sense he knew I would always be there; waiting to see him with a positive welcome and endless support.

That last day in my office as Luke and I sat together, Luke pointed across from the chair that he always sat in, facing a small, brass paperweight that sat on the shelf. He asked, "Can I take a picture of that?" I looked over at the paperweight that I walked by daily, and had forgotten to notice it. It read, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP. Luke added, "It means a lot to me because it is what I have always looked at when I have come to your office. It has helped me."

Tears filled my eyes. While we had never discussed the paperweight with the quote, we had repeatedly discussed never giving up. I knew Luke had not given up. We both knew the greatest lesson he learned through his high school years was learning to keep going and never give up. I pray Luke will always remember this lesson.

We said goodbye that day. Luke has a place in my heart.

The brass paperweight still sits on the shelf across from the chair where the next new students now sit in my office- reading that same message.

YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP.