Taking Pride in your Work
In my case, taking pride in your work takes on an extra meaning. It means not only that you’ve managed to do your job; but that you’ve managed to take a person who could have become something terrible, and shown them the way to become someone you’d trust. I shall attempt to tell you about one of the times I’ve been really truly proud of my work.
Fred is a young man whose case I’d worked on, and had managed to turn away from a particularly messy episode. He’s now married, and living in a small house in the city. It’s early on a Thursday morning, and Fred is about go to work when there’s a knock on the door. At the door is a friend of Fred’s from when he was young. She’s the little sister of one of his friends, and they’d always gotten along well. She’s a good six years younger than he is, and she’s looking appalling. Fred’s wife takes one look at her and goes back into the house to tell work that no one’s going to be turning up today.
It turns out the young girl has been having an affair with a married man, and her contraceptive has failed. She’s utterly distraught, she doesn’t want to go home, she doesn’t want to talk to her brother or her family because she’s been brought up quite strictly and is convinced that they’ll disown her on the spot. Fred knows exactly why she thought of him, as does his wife. Three years ago they’d been in a similar situation, except there was no pregnancy in their case. It had been a false alarm, but for a few days they’d been seriously panicking, as at the time they’d been heading for different marriages.
Our girl is beyond upset, and she’s seriously distraught, she hasn’t a clue what to do but Fred is very clear on what has to happen.
She has to talk to her parents.