Recently, my best friend informed me that his mom broke up with her boyfriend. In the college and high school world, that sort of thing happens every day. But when you're older and you leave the person you've been with for 15 years, everyone is bound to be affected. By my friend's accounts, his mom might have been planning this for quite some time. She left the St. Louis to take a job as a traveling nurse in Colorado, and is now taking the same position in California. So, the signs out having fallen out of love were probably there. But it's not just his mom and ex-step dad who have to deal with this; it's my friend and his step brothers as well. Regardless of how much they'll see their step-mom or step-dad, the reality is that they're being deprived of a figure in their lives. Sadly, this isn't just an isolated case.
All throughout the United States, there are children who have never met their parents and probably never well. For others, the splitting of their parents will be the defining point in their lives. The concept of divorce is so ingrained into our society that I think we overlook it. We think of the divorce rate as just another happenstance; few people really consider its implications. In the the student population I want to work with, parent-less families are the norm. Most of them won't have the same luck as my friend, who will continue to see his former step-dad and step-brothers; they will still be a presence in his life. In inner-city communities, that's not the case. Whether a step-dad or step-mom is dead, in jail, or just plain not there, they have a lot to deal with. Hopefully, I will go from helping my friend in his situation, to working with less fortunate kids.
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