SL: LU was telling us her story of how she learned how to communicate honestly with her mother about her pain.
LU told us that she was miserable for 2 years at a mis-matched school. Yet since she was a good girl, she kept her misery to herself until finally one day she burst out crying when the school’s yearly planner arrived in their mail.
LU was surprised that all she had to do was cry and the world, her mother, would listen.
It was a powerful story to share with JA,for it allowed JA to see that maybe she can also tell her parents how she feels, and her parents maybe will see that JA is a good girl who happens to be in the wrong school.
Based on LU’s stories, and some of my projecting, I think LU was taught that holding back her feelings was what a “good girl” does. A “good girl” does not think about her own needs and just swallows whatever she is told is good for her.
At some point LU realized that she needed to be for herself, “Im lo ani li, mi li?”
There is nothing manipulative here. LU was crying from the heart. Because she was in true pain. It took a lot for her to get to that place of letting someone else see her tears.