Adam Roa is a poet laureate who writes about life and love. He reflects on concepts such as self compassion, emotions and being vulnerable- all topics I am exploring with my students right now during our Dare to Care through Micro Compassion project.
I particularly chose Adam’s work as I was hoping that the young men in my school might relate to a man to man conversation, particularly since I am the only school counsellor and I have a female’s perspective.
Adam did not disappoint.
On March 20th I showed the following video to my students.
My students loved it. They sat mesmerized.
I told my students that Adam was one of my favourite poets and that the week before Adam had “slipped into my DMs” and told me that he appreciated me sharing some of his content.
The kids were super excited as this celebrity they had just listened to online suddenly became a real-life person who uses Instagram.
They wanted me to write him back and we composed the following message back to him as a class. (please ignore the typos- my phone likes to auto- uncorrect my messages)
Not only did Adam respond back to their message- but he also “hearted” them twice – Apparently this is a HUGE thing in their world .
I will be forever grateful to you @adam.roa for demonstrating to my students that their opinion’s matter.
Love,
Erin Luong
Erin Luong's Reflections on Counselling, Education, Leadership and Technology 