The Advice Giver

My, the tables have turned.

After the past couple of months where I had turned to friends and family about understanding and acceptance, now I have already been approached by high schoolers for advice about their relationship problems.

In this certain situation, I have to be extra careful. I was dealing with a female who is a senior this year. She dated a guy who is at college now and they just recently broke up earlier this summer. But she is still carrying the torch for this guy, even though she again just recently dated (and broken up) with another guy just this past month.

Now, how in the hell am I supposed to approach this? Tell her of my past experiences? That wouldn't work, because I can only give her a man's point-of-view. Instead, I took the safe route: I told her to follow her own instincts. In my opinion, she'll be hurt by this situation, but I refrained to tell her that. She's young (only 17) and she simply needs the experience. Instead of cutting corners, she simply needs to go through those situations herself -- and that's what I told her.

Although I appreciate the fact that there are some students out there that can see me as a person who can be trusted, I'm the last person to come to about relationship advice, especially at the high school level. One reason why I became a teacher/coach is to pass on "words of wisdom" regarding morals and knowing the difference between right and wrong. With relationships ... well, that's a whole new ballgame and they should figure that one out for themselves.