Thoughts on Re-Entering School After Leaving For Treatment
Are you excited?
I groan. I don’t know what I feel.
I stare at my backpack and flashbacks of lonely dorm-room binges and deceitful purges play on a loop.
Excited? I don’t think that’s quite right. But, I am honestly, unsure of what I do feel.
I remember walking around campus a year ago, a head full of food fantasies, a bleeding stomach, a sore throat, scarred knuckles and a suffocating emptiness I never knew was humanly possible to experience.
I remember, like it was yesterday. But, I also feel like an entirely new person now.
How do I say hello to the people I disappeared from a year ago as the me I am now?
Am I different? Will they notice a change? Do I share my story? Does anyone care?
I pick my pens and place my headphones in my bag. Done. Ready. or am I?
I don’t know if one is ever ready to re-enter the world after treatment. (But, tip: I do know that one always needs to re-enter the world after treatment.)
So, here I sit, backpack in hand “ready” to re-enter.
To you who are re-entering school after leaving for a season to receive treatment, know I am right with you. I am in your boat.
We can roe roe our boats trying to figure out what this bizarre feeling is. Not quite excited, not upset, not scared, but… something.
I am happy to sit in the boat beside you and just be. I may not know my feelings about re-entering life as it was before treatment but, I have a feeling everything will be alright. We`ve got this. #warriorsunite
One day at a time.
And hey, maybe that person sitting next to you needs to know you are a warrior because they have been fighting, too.
I suppose, if anything, to be back but in a better head-space is a time to be kind, to be love, to be a source of hope to the lost and the broken.
Maybe you and I were made for more than just ourselves.
Maybe our stories can truly impact.
I swing on my backpack.
Breathe.
Okay, let’s do this thing.
*cue inspirational jam song *
Thank you for taking on such an important topic. I faced such a situation a few years ago. I was absent from school for 2 years and when I came back, it was so hard to adapt. Especially because of the difference in age between me and my classmates. It would be great to see this article earlier… Anyway, I dealt with it thanks to my very supportive parents, and also some additional sources such as this important link, where I got a lot of help with my study tasks, so I’ve not felt anxious, but more confident. And also want to say that parents must teach their kids basic tolerance and ethics to avoid bullying.