By RJ O.
Cold, selfish and unhappy is how I spent my Christmas in years past. My mood and emotions reflected Mother Nature on a cold winter night. I always looked forward to Christmas morning when I would receive many gifts, but I was always ungrateful and all I wanted to do was exchange the gifts I had been given for something “better”. Everyone around me was all smiles and on this beautiful day while I indulged in my own churlish attitude. A part of me knew that I should be thinking about others and focusing on giving rather than receiving, but that part of me was like a mouse trapped in a giant Tupperware bowl scrapping at the transparent wall trying to get out. It took me a full year during my stay to finally allow this seemingly hopeless mouse to see the light of day again.
I arrived at The Family Foundation School on December 14, 2010 I wasn’t looking forward to spending another Christmas away from home. My previous Christmas before was spent in the woods of Vermont in, The True North Wilderness Program provided a Christmas that I would never forget. On Christmas morning I was handed a wooden spoon and five Tootsie Rolls. You would think I would be grateful after graduating from the wilderness program, but after going home and surrounding myself with the same people, places and things, I shut out the new person I had become during my wilderness experience. I put myself in a position where I was going to miss my second Christmas with my family and I was not thrilled to say the least.
I adjusted well to the school, but I wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around during the holidays. Materialistically I was content, but there was something missing. I felt like the Grinch with a shriveled up heart because all I cared about was me and nobody else. I did in fact gain some relationships with kids because I was living with them; the same superficial relationships I shared with friends back home.
Early November 2011 I found out I was going to miss another Christmas at home. My first reaction was to be frustrated and complain about something I couldn’t change. But after thinking about the true meaning of Christmas and saying a prayer I had a change of heart. With a selfless attitude my 2011 Christmas at The Family School was one to remember.
Love spread through Talbot House faster than a blink of an eye. This warm compassion felt like burrowing up in your blanket on a frigid night. Everyone was happy and nothing else mattered besides seeing the expression on the face of the person who was opening up the present you got them. When I went home on December 27 and this selfless, open-hearted attitude traveled with me from the school to my family. These new emotions felt weird at first because I had never showed them in my home or in front of my family. It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t excited to open up presents at my house, but my mind wasn’t consumed by these material things. I was content with being home and being surrounded by people that I love and by people that love me, so opening presents was the icing on the cake of a memorable day.


