A choice.

Since I was young, I always knew I wanted to help people. That's why I chose to study special care counselling. I gave my best during internships, and I've just completed my program at Cégep du Vieux-Montreal. I finally got my diploma and now I have to make a choice of a place to start my journey. Should I work in a school, a youth center or a group home.

Choice 1 : Go to school.

Choice 2 : Go to Youth Center.

Choice 3 : Go to Group home.

Go to school.

I'll be supporting students with learning difficulties, anxiety, or behavior issues. I'll be part of a team with teachers, helping each child find strategies to succeed both in class and in life.

Choice 1 : Work in a specialized class.

Choice 2 : Work in general classes.

Go to Youth Center.

I was guiding teenagers who faced personal or family challenges. I created activities, leaded discussions, and was a stable presence for youth trying to find their place in the world.

Choice 1 : Group activities and workshops.

Choice 2 : One-on-one emotional support

Go to Group home.

I was living a part of the daily life of the youth. I was offering emotional support, structure, and consistency to young people who had been through difficult situations.

Choice 1 : Evening and Overnight Care.

Choice 2 : Crisis Response and Behavior Management.

Work in a specialized class.

I had chosen to work in specialized class with students who had autism, intellectual disabilities, or major behavioural challenges. It wasn't an easy path, but I felt ready.I worked hard at school to understand how to support them properly. I had also volunteered abroad, where I discovered how universal some struggles are. I thought I was ready for everything.My first week, I was assigned to a student who didn't speak, didn't make eye contact, and often dreamed when routines changed. I felt overwhelmed. Thankfully, I received on the job training. I learned how to read this signals, how to create a routine that worked, how to stay calm when everything felt chaotic. One day, after weeks of silence, he looked at me and said, " You stay". Just two words. But they meant everything.

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Work in general classes.

In general classes, the needs were harder to see. Students masked their anxiety or acted out in ways that were misunderstood. One girl sat in the back never raised her hand. The teacher thought she was lazy. Is at with her one, day and she whispered, "I don't read fast. Everyone will laugh." We stared practicing together during lunch. Slowly, she gained confidence. By the end of the terme, she volunteered to read aloud. She did't need a label. She needed time and someone who noticed.

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Group activities and workshops.

Leading group workshops became my way to reach youth who didn't like to talk directlyvabout their struggles. During an art therapy session, I asked the teens to paint "what freedom feels like." One boy, usually loud and disruptive, quietly painted a door with no handle. I asked hime what it meant. He shrugged and said, "It's a door I can't open. But I'm not done yet". That day he stayed behind to finish his painting alone, focused, calm. Art gave him a voice when words didn't.

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One-on-one emotional support.

In a youth center, crisis can happen any time fight, panic attacks, runaways. I was trained to stay calm, listen and step in when needed. One afternoon, a teen came running out of a meeting, shaking and crying. He had just learned he might be moved to a new foster home again. I brought him to the quiet room. He kept yelling, "No one cares where I go". I didn't say much. I just sat there and let him be angry, scared and honest. After a while, he looked at me and said, " You didn't try to fix it. You just stayed". In that moment, presence was more powerful than any solution.

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Evening and Overnight Care.

Evenings were when the walls came down. After dinner, after the chaos of the day, the house got quieter. That's when real conversations started. One night, as I was locking up the kitchen, a boy I'd barely spoken to said, "Do you ever stay up just to think?" I nodded. We ended up talking in the hallway for over an hour. He told me about his past, about being moved around, about not trusting anyone. That night, I didn't fix anything. But he finally went to bed without a flight. Sometimes, healing Strats with a hallway chat at midnight.

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Crisis Response and Behavior Management.

Some days were calm. Others were not. A girl refused to go to school. She dreamed, threw things, pushed a chair over. Staff ere tense. I stepped in not with commands, but with calm. I sat on the floor across the room and said, " You don't have to go right now. Just breathe." I took 40 minutes. Eventually, she got up, walked past me, and whispered, "Thanks for not yelling." Crises work isn't about control. It's about connection in the middle chaos.

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