It started with a classmate asking for his e-mail during an online meet with his class Monday last week. It took some doing but eventually his teacher sent him a list with addresses and phonenumbers of his classmates - since he enrolled in this school only in November, he is still fairly new and hadn't made a lot of friends prior to the corona lockdown. In his former school, he was bullied as well as physically atacked by his presumed friends and left to his own devices by his teachers who blamed him for the bullying, so his faith in both classmates and teachers is very low.
So when this girl asked him for his e-mail, you can imagine his surprise. I could see him starting to glow, his whole demeanor has changed ever since. She asked for various ways to keep in touch with each other, so I helped him install iMessage on his iPad, as well as Facetime and this online game/chat app. It suddenly hit him how lonely he actually was.
Every day now they reach out to each other, sending silly texts and playing online. I am so pleased to see him grow like this. Just as he needs me for guidance and agreements on social media time, he needs his own mates to mature and gain self-confidence, to practice social skills and team work.
I am relieved that he dares to say no to things he doesn't want to do, that he is bold enough to suggest ideas of his own, and that they both look for alternatives and ways to compromise when they disagree on something. And he now realises he truly missed connection. Thank goodness for social media.
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