Gary's and the job market

This kid has this incredible self-confidence that continues to amaze me. Maybe it is a lot of bravado, but it is convincing. The job market here, like so many other places, is really bad. The jobs that teenagers usually get are being taken by people who are currently laid off and looking for better work. Even the places that are still hiring teenagers only want the ones with experience.

Still, he talks about getting a job. I believe that he does submit applications with his job services coach. Of course it is possible that he doesn't. He may be trying to bluff me. I have just got to the point where I don't worry about whether he is telling the truth about things like that.

Anyway, he is bounding back after losing confidence with respect to marial arts, which is interesting because he gets loses match-ups with others all the time. He is talking again about going to this tournament in the summer...the one that will cost $1500. He can get about 1/3 of that from the agency, if they are convinced that he is working for another chunk of it. Once again he is talking about sponsorship. I'm being cautiously encouraging, which is to say that I say positive things without getting very invested.

He is an odd kid. He talks about how much he hates his English paper, about how he can't write and that he knows that part of it is that he is intimidated by the papers. He doesn't see how he can do it. Then he asks me if students write in my class and I say that they have to write at least 6 one-page papers (they can turn in one a week and I will take the top six grades), participate in the on-line forum every week, and write one 10-page research paper. He tells me that that is NOTHING. He can do that! College sounds easy!

I don't know how he manages to maintain this positive self-image. I think it is a good thing, don't get me wrong. I'm impressed with him. I just wonder how he manages it.

He is always full of plans. Big plans.