Charlie has had to endure numerous goodbyes in his short life.  He’s said goodbye to grandparents all his life; he’s said goodbye to friends when we’ve moved away; and he’s said goodbye to temporary friends (2 or less days) countless times around the world during our travels.  It’s one of the tragedies of living internationally, and it’s an experience that I don’t personally know from my own childhood as I lived on the same street with the same circle of friends all through my childhood up into high school. 

Just recently, Charlie’s best friends returned to their home country.  In fact, his entire posse has disintegrated.  During the summer, two of his friends in his group returned to their homeland, and now his best friends out of the group have also had to leave.  Unfortunately, the decisions of parents affect more than just their brood, and it’s one of the cons in the short list opposite the pros. 

Yesterday, sitting with my arms wrapped around his shoulders, Charlie grieved another lost friendship, and bemoaned the fact that he has no friends at school anymore.  He finds it difficult to make friends with the local children because of language barrier, the way that they “play” is very rough play-fighting, and they often pick on him by pulling his hair because it’s so different from their own (blonde, straight, and soft). 

The other day, knowing that his friends had moved away, I asked Charlie who he spent time with during the break at school.  He said, “Nobody.  I go to the canteen and sit at a table by myself and eat my snack.”  The extroverted heart in myself dropped like a stone.  By yourself?  As in alone?  Picking up on my dismay, my introverted husband asked my introverted son, “Did it bother you to sit alone?”  No, came the reply.  I was happy. 

I can’t help it, though.  When I think of him sitting alone while everyone else around him has social networks to connect into, I cry.  I would die without friends.  Charlie commented on his snack to me as well, saying that I shouldn’t pack so much food because he doesn’t have anyone to share his food with anymore.  The situation is desperate, I tell you!

I know that Charlie is a friendly chap, enjoying his few friends when he makes them, so I’m just praying that a new, healthy, fun friendship develops in his life at school so that he doesn’t have endure too many more solo breaks, and I can pack as much food as I see fit into that pack of his.