The complete set of 198 Hints are available in paperback from the CYC-Net Press store.
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The principal at the new school welcomed me along with the other newcomers. He ruffled my hair and said "I can see you can handle a ball, hey? I look forward to seeing you in a school team." The class teacher said "I have your papers from your last school. I see you have not been working hard enough and that you need a little more discipline." The schoolyard supervisor said "I can see you're not going to give me any trouble. You give me no trouble and I'll give you no trouble." The lady back at the group home said "I can see you're a good boy and you're going to do well." The social worker who brought me here said to her "He gives me no trouble at all. Most times we don't even know he's there."
None of them could see me. None of them knew why I had been sent to this town. Nobody saw that I had been crying. Nor the struggle in my eyes between defeat and the remnants of hope. Nor my mouth, set in resignation and yet longing to smile. I am terrified by their blindness, by their expectations, by their prejudgment, by their denial, by their ignorance and by their threats. And it's not just about what they see ... it's also about what they want to see and what they don't want to see.
But I am here now. I need you to take the trouble to really see me, so that I am able to trust you with myself – with all that I am. I have been told how bad I am and the trouble I've caused. I also want to know about the rest of me ... what I can do and want to do and should do. There are many sides to me ...
What you see and what you don't see.
