Hunting season is now open...

He is 16 and has lived one very tough life. All his life he has been physically abused, moved around, selling drugs and smoking a lot of weed. Sadly he is on his final warning at the youth hostel. If he gets another one, he will be asked to move on to another place. It's hard for me because I am the only worker there who had tapped into his life and made a connection. I did it a couple of weeks ago when I took the young people grocery shopping. He mentioned Blacktown (a rough suburb in Sydney) in a conversation he was having. My ears popped up and I told him that I used to live near there. He questioned me about what happens at Blacktown station to see if I was telling the truth. He was shocked when I told him what that it is one of the most common drug dealing spots in Western Sydney.
Later that night myself and another worker had to speak to him about a warning he was suppose to get. Prior to him coming in the office, I fought my ass off for him and convinced my fellow worker that we shouldn't give him a warning. He came in and had the most amazing conversation I have had with a young person so far. And the beauty of it is that he knows that I have walked in his shoes for a little bit and have a greater understanding of where he has been. I have been inspired to help him as much as I can since watching Good Will Hunting. The way Sean (Robin Williams) connects with Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is breath taking.
There is a part in the movie when Will opens up about the beatings from his foster father. Sean look will in the eye and says "It's not your fault." He repeats this and Will constantly replies "I know." But then Will realizes that it's not his fault. "Don't fuck with me Sean, not you." Sean replies, "It's not your fault". At that moment, Will let Sean hold his broken heart. He trusted him. Sean got through to Will. This was the greatest youth work I've ever seen. In fact it was so great I cried. It was perfect. I thought to myself, how could I not be moved by that?
After watching the movie, I went up to Deanne Gray (One of my lectures, possibly the greatest lecture I will ever have) and asked her if she had seen it. She had and I said guess what my favourite scene was, she instantly replied "It's not your fault". YES! We ended up talking for 20 minutes about how great that scene and the whole movie was. Good Will Hunting has inspired me even more to be the best youth worker that the young people could ever want and need.