if I hadn’t already known Emily had issues, I never would have known from that Brownie meeting.
There were girls who wanted to talk and talk and talk, girls who raised their hand at any opportunity – tellingly, these were the girls who joined us from the other troop – and there were girls who didn’t ever volunteer, but whom I called on anyway and who had good answers when asked. Emily fell at that end of the spectrum. She didn’t speak up, but when asked, she had good, relevant answers. Like “What can you do to help stop germs?” “Well, washing your hands is good for not having germs.” The answer was well within the range of normal answers from the troop. And she stayed at the table or in the circle or wherever the other girls were, and participated well.
I was really afraid it was going to be heartbreaking to do this, to see what the other girls were doing that Emily wasn’t. But she fit right in, and nobody said anything or, I think, thought anything about it.
And you know what? For the whole meeting, I didn’t notice or think about it either. Amazing.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.