This weekend past, it was my school reunion.  Now whilst that might not seem like anything significant, quite a few decades on, there was a lot to reflect on. 

You see I was a boarder sent to a city school from the country at 12 years old.  Only getting to go home on the holidays or the occasional long weekend, I essentially grew up at high school.  At the reunion I met up again with the people that had grown me up – my fellow students.

Reflecting on the stories shared on the night, I realize now the huge impact we all had upon one another.  

Our adolescent lives colliding at the school gates, some with heavy suitcases aching with homesickness, and others with absently packed bags relieved for their escape from their turmoil at home.

Day students and boarders alike – family illness, struggles with mental health, abuse, addiction – these are only a small portion of the difficulties that many of us were silently struggling with. 

Yet everyday we all turned up at school and gave what we could – to our learning and to each other.

Whether it was the little acts of kindness, or whether it was those harsh teenage moments of un-carefully shared honesty ... in the reflection of one another we came to know who we were, ultimately contributing to who we have become…

I haven’t seen so many of these people for a very long time.

The common experience of navigating adolescence together bonding us all…

The reunion was a reminder to me, that regardless of how seemingly insignificant, I must never underestimate the impact of my relationships … 

(As a therapist, often exploring the quality of relationships, Sarah Sacks, works from her practice The Grove Counselling, located in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda East).

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