Posted four years ago on my FB:

She quickened her footsteps towards me during recess, declared that she didn’t need to eat, and took her seat opposite mine - but not before I admonished her for wearing friendship bands and a jacket. (Seriously, what’s up with kids these days?)

She then spilled the beans about the things that have been bothering her, the things that she finds it hard to say to her own family, the things that she now poured out to me without skipping a beat. “I trust you,” she said.

I validated her feelings, yet challenged her thought process. Honestly, I would have preferred it if I could ring fence my domain of influence to plain academics but I did recognise that this chat matters. That many years down the road, she will forget what I taught her in class but remember how I listened to her make sense of her current situation.