It was a hot summer day on the tennis courts. A group of children hit tennis balls against a back wall and a young girl retreated to the shade. She rested her face in her hands and began to cry. I walked up to her, kneeled down to her level and smiled. She looked up. I rested my hand on her shoulder, smiled again, and told her everything would be okay.
Being in touch with the emotions of others--empathy--is more than just a quality that defines me. Empathy, as I see it, is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. This is already clear in the word itself: “Path” (feeling) combined with “em” means “feeling for another.” This implies empathy is really a form of sensitivity; an intuitive ability to connect with and understand
…show more content…
This past summer I worked for New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL). The organization focuses on community tennis, giving children of all ages and economic backgrounds the opportunity to play and learn the game. Over a period of six weeks I met and worked with many of these children. While the primary goal of the program is to teach tennis, I came to think of the job as an opportunity to mentor children both athletically and emotionally. As I moved from site to site around the five boroughs, each kid I came into contact with differed dramatically in skill level: some were beginners, some were advanced, and some had never picked up a racquet. On one occasion I was responsible for teaching kids with physical and mental disabilities. I was hitting volleys with a boy I noticed another, older boy, leave the line and start to cry. The boy did not express himself verbally because he was mute. I walked over to him and looked into his eyes with seriousness and sympathy. Even without the use of words he seemed to recognize my welcoming intentions. Despite our inability to communicate with each other in a standard way, I knew why he cried. I felt this boy’s melancholy and found a way to channel empathy through body language and kind