Words of Wisdom: SFCH Loving School Student Writes Inspirational Hope Message
These insightful words weren’t crafted by a professional writer but by a 13-year-old middle school student, Avery, who attends Children’s Home Society’s (CHS) Loving School in Sioux Falls.
Loving School Teacher Assistant Paige Knuth and Classroom Teacher Intern Kaela Larkin handed each student a sheet of paper with a small squiggle on it. They asked students to complete the drawing and write a story to accompany their art.
For Avery, that squiggle quickly became a mountain. As he drew, he imagined more—storm clouds, a river, sunshine and small faces. Each doodle represented something greater: the mountain as life’s journey, the storm as fear and moments that rattle you, and the river as both a threat and a path forward.
“These little circles are supposed to be people. I drew them downstream of the river to represent that there are people that may feel lower than you,” Avery said as he pointed to the bottom of the drawing. “When we’re sad, we don’t often think about others. But no matter where we are in our journey, we should always try to help someone else.”
When he is feeling sad, he often recalls a conversation he had with one of the people he trusts the most, his uncle.
“Even when I can’t talk to my uncle, I think about what he would say. He once told me, ‘Only boring people get bored.’ That doesn’t mean you’re boring—it means you can do something about how you feel. The same thing goes for sadness. You can let it affect you, or you can find a way to fight back. You need to overpower your sadness because you are amazing.”
Avery’s ability to reflect, reframe and uplift others is a reminder that wisdom often doesn’t come with age. Knuth shared that sometimes the teachers aren’t wearing a badge at the front of the classroom but are sitting behind the desks.
“His brain is just brilliant,” said Paige. “We need to remember that we are not just teaching these kids, but they’re also teaching us. We need to give them a platform because the insight and wisdom they hold needs to be heard.”
Avery’s words are exactly the kind of wisdom that Knuth believes should have a platform. And as he so eloquently put it, we all need to remember:
“Life has ups and downs like a mountain. There are slippery slopes, steep inclines and rocky paths, but if you preserve and make it to the top, you can see the sunshine. You can be happy. But we need to remember those people at the bottom—stuck in the river—because they need help too. I guarantee at some point on your journey up the mountain, you might have been stuck in a river needing a helping hand.”
