Glen Meadow students learn to survive adolescence

VERNON — Everyone was a kid once, although many adults don’t seem to remember the experience.

As adolescents, some of these same adults had fears and insecurities and some had tougher problems. Some felt rejected and alone in the world. Some got into trouble with the law and some let their big mouths get them into hot water with a minimum amount of thought or effort. Is a child handling a situation well, or are they hiding their feelings well?

And yet, 25 years later, some of these adults don’t remember a thing about growing up.

But not Jordan Sonnenblick.
He remembers being a kid. He remembers being an awkward child who had to wear eyeglasses at an early age and learn to cope with asthma, when the best medicines at the time just about kept you alive.

Yes, Sonnenblick remembers being a kid, and he shared his knowledge and stories of his own growing pains with seventh-and eighth-grade students at Glen Meadow Middle School on Wednesday, Feb. 11.

He spoke to the students on a level that they could easily grasp and appreciate. One lesson was to identify what a person really wants to be good at and then the need to focus on those things until they become realities.

His own goals as a child were to learn to play drums, to become a teacher, and to become a writer. To some chuckling among the students, he explained that sitting on the couch with a bag of Cheetos while playing video games is clearly not the path to success.

Sure enough, he learned to play the drums and extended that goal to include guitar and bass. He next studied long and hard and became an English teacher. Reaching two out of three goals is an achievement in itself, however, becoming a writer would take some 30 years and a twist of fate while at the same time caring for his wife and two young children.

“I would have been happy teaching middle school forever, but life took a strange turn,” he said.

Early in the last decade, he had a student named Emily whose little brother was in treatment for cancer.

“Emily rarely talked about her brother’s illness, but of course it was very hard on her,” Sonnenblick said.

He approached the girl’s mother and offered to find a book for the girl to read about another teen coping with a similar situation. The only problem that was the more he searched, the more he came to realize that such a book did not exist.

His third goal was achieved when he committed himself to writing his first novel, "Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie."

Now, at age 45, Sonnenblick has left teaching and is a full-time author and motivational speaker for those in need of help to survive adolescence.

Yes, Sonnenblick remembers being a kid.