Counselor’s Corner Issue 36

Dear Pushers,

Last week I was driving home when I encountered a car fully stopped in the middle of the right-hand lane. Veering around it and through an intersection, I continued on my way until a Holy-Spirit-nudge forced me to do a U-turn. Parking in a nearby lot, I sprinted across the wet road and leaned into the cracked window of the driver. Shaking with fear, she said "I'm freaking out! This has been the best car and now it just stopped on me." After reassuring her that I was there to help her, I surveyed the situation. Her car had stalled out on an incline. To my right was an even larger hill that surely wouldn't accommodate my one-woman muscle pushing on the 30-year old Honda. After talking this through, I staged myself at the front of the car and commanded the driver to put the car into neutral. With all my might, I heaved against the car, using the momentum of the downhill to push the car backward and partially into a driveway. However, she was still not positioned well. I knew that this was a situation I needed help.

So I mustered up my courage and stepped out into the oncoming traffic flow, waving my arms and hands as the universal signal for help. It took a minute. A few cars swerved and passed by. But then two drivers stopped. Parking strategically behind the stalled car to afford even more protection, they flipped on their hazard lights and ran to my side. We communicated, strategized the most effective way to help, and then aligned ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder on the rusty bumper.

Together we counted down and then began to push, audibly grunting with the weight, a retiree on my left, a young buck in workout clothes to my right. Our feet slipped on the rain-slicked pavement, yet we grunted with all our might. Slowly we made progress, steering through the busy intersection, holding back oncoming traffic despite their green-lighted go. We steered her into the parking lot of safety and helped her call a tow truck. And then we celebrated. Three strangers hugging one another in congratulatory embraces at achieving a common goal: The driver was no longer stranded and now was equipped and able to continue her journey.

I know you can relate. When you see a student stuck and stagnant, you don't keep going. You stop instruction and zone in on the kid that is stuck. You go shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow educators, communicating and strategizing the best way to move forward. And then you push, sometimes it feels like DRAG, the student to a better place. It may take days, or weeks, or all school year, but there will someday be a time when you and your teammates celebrate that that student is no longer stranded! You have answered the Holy Spirit's nudge to equip them enable that student to continue on the journey.

Side-by-side in the grunting,
Mindy