People do need back-up and others to talk to who won’t judge their mistakes. It may not seem related to just picking a gravatar but suffering in silence over the careless comments of others can actually be deadly. We want our students to be sensitive but also robust and willing to take chances and make mistakes. Allow yourself mistakes and sometimes that means being embarrassingly supportive of others.

There’s a paradox in this that we have to get past or we won’t grow into the open people we want to be. Vulnerability and safety is a combination so rich and also so close to danger that they can’t exist without the gracefulness of forgiveness and sometimes we ourselves can’t sponsor that forgiveness for ourselves and need others.

Selfish as it sounds, Rebecca’s hurts and successes are healing for me. I draw from her energy and bravery and I’m stronger for it. A person’s identity online can be as complex and contradictory as they want. Maybe the wholeness of themselves is too far a reach for young people and they need a managed image? Or maybe they need to be a complete suite of feelings and understandings in the storm to really shine?

Who knew Twitter could be so deep?