My 16 year old sophmore son has told us that he is extremely isolated from his class at his high school. This is a kid who has always had a very best friend or group of friends. He was elected president of his K-8 school and for nine years had the most wonderful tight knit sweet group of boys as friends. Then went to high school and simply never found his posse. He is very academically ambitious, straight A’s, loves to work, has a job at the local frozen yogurt shop, had a darling girlfriend for almost a year, but is very intense and direct and is having a hard time fitting in. One big factor is that he is choosing to be drug and alcohol free and thinks he might truly be the only boy in his class making that choice. He reaches out to people on the weekend and nobody includes him in their activities, then he sees it all on social media. He has removed most social media from his phone but some still seeps in. As his mom, on one hand I am so proud of him but on the other hand I am sad that he is missing out on the intense (and I think important) friendships that can be forged in high school. Both my husband and I were lucky enough to enjoy a group of freinds in high school that we are still extremely close to and those lifelong friends have been incredibly meaningful to us. Summer looks good, his cabin for his sleepaway camp is super close and those boys will be spending a month in July hiking the Appalachian Trail, which he is excited about. Then in August, Bayard is going to Spain for his junior year with 60 other Americans, we are all hoping that it’s a better fit than his current high school. So, I guess my question is how do we best support him through the next few months to get him to July? Both my husband and I (and his two brothers) are around, present, compassionate, available — anything else? Thank you for everything, Lindsay