When I was finally awake, and I mean literally FINALLY awake, I found myself in a hospital. In The Netherlands of all places. The last place I remembered being in, was a country far away.
Whole armies of concerned citizens gathered around me for several reasons. Some were there for my mental wellbeing, some were law enforcers, but most of them were there to try and keep me alive, which was no small feat, I can assure you.
There was one issue I disliked most, and that was the 'opening up' issue. A psychiatrist was there, he came every day and did his best to get me to talk. This alone was quite impossible. Not only was I unable to talk, I didn't WANT to talk. I wanted to be left alone. Only he didn't leave me alone, he was there every day and we held this competitive silence together for days, even weeks I think, not sure.
And then he presented me with something that suddenly interested me. He said: "What if we enroll you in school, so you can have a decent education. And in return you start talking to me?". So I wrote to him: "SCHOOL???"
"Yes, school. I am fairly certain that you haven't set foot in any school over the past five years."
He was right. Ever since the trafficking business had started, I had travelled all over the eastern parts of Europe and I had learned a lot, including a few languages, but I had not been to school since I was 10 years old.
I wrote: "I am NOT interested in sitting in class with children half my age". To which to my surprise he started snickering. "NO. I mean we can enroll you in online school, we assess your capabilities and where you lack knowledge and we take it from there."
I (suspiciously): "and what do you want in return?" He: "For you and I to start talking properly."
It took me only a few hours to think about that. I LOVE school, I love learning, I love languages, I said "YES".
From that moment on I spent every minute awake on my education. I sped through the topics I lacked to go to High School. And then I just ran through High School.
I kept my promise and started opening up to that psychiatrist. I don't see him anymore because I am now living someplace else. But I will never forget him because he was inventive, thinking out of the box, and because he offered me the opportunity to start living. Thanks to him I found in myself a spark of life.
Whole armies of concerned citizens gathered around me for several reasons. Some were there for my mental wellbeing, some were law enforcers, but most of them were there to try and keep me alive, which was no small feat, I can assure you.
There was one issue I disliked most, and that was the 'opening up' issue. A psychiatrist was there, he came every day and did his best to get me to talk. This alone was quite impossible. Not only was I unable to talk, I didn't WANT to talk. I wanted to be left alone. Only he didn't leave me alone, he was there every day and we held this competitive silence together for days, even weeks I think, not sure.
And then he presented me with something that suddenly interested me. He said: "What if we enroll you in school, so you can have a decent education. And in return you start talking to me?". So I wrote to him: "SCHOOL???"
"Yes, school. I am fairly certain that you haven't set foot in any school over the past five years."
He was right. Ever since the trafficking business had started, I had travelled all over the eastern parts of Europe and I had learned a lot, including a few languages, but I had not been to school since I was 10 years old.
I wrote: "I am NOT interested in sitting in class with children half my age". To which to my surprise he started snickering. "NO. I mean we can enroll you in online school, we assess your capabilities and where you lack knowledge and we take it from there."
I (suspiciously): "and what do you want in return?" He: "For you and I to start talking properly."
It took me only a few hours to think about that. I LOVE school, I love learning, I love languages, I said "YES".
From that moment on I spent every minute awake on my education. I sped through the topics I lacked to go to High School. And then I just ran through High School.
I kept my promise and started opening up to that psychiatrist. I don't see him anymore because I am now living someplace else. But I will never forget him because he was inventive, thinking out of the box, and because he offered me the opportunity to start living. Thanks to him I found in myself a spark of life.
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