Prisoner

One

"Dad, I'm twenty two, I can handle it. Please, this would be really good experience for me," Grayson argues.

"It's scary there, and you're tiny."

Grayson crosses her arms. "I'm not tiny. It's fine, I told you I can handle it."

"I'm sure you could, I'm the one that couldn't."

"Why??"

"I'm scared you'll get hurt," her father says.

Grayson sighs. "Dad, I won't get hurt."

"Those guys are dangerous, you never know what they'll do."

"They'll be cuffed, though," Grayson points out. "Can you at least just let me come and follow you around for a day. You already said your boss is fine with it."

"Well if you're gonna do that you might as well just intern," Mr. Rowling says, giving into his daughter.

Grayson smiles. "Great! Thanks dad, this will be really good."

"I hope so."

---

Two days pass and it's finally time for Grayson to go to the prison with her dad. She'll admit that she's nervous but not because of the inmates. She's  nervous that she won't like it or that she'll say the wrong thing.

Her goal has always been to help people, even as a kid it's all she wanted to do. All the other girls in her classes when she was young wanted to be models or princesses, but Grayson, she always said she wanted to help people and she still stands by that.

She's always known she's wanted to do it on a more personal level, too. She never wanted to be a model or princess, she wanted to connect to people in more of an emotional way. She wants to change peoples lives.

She never really knew the path she would take though, then she decided on being a social worker of some sort. She's honestly still not sure what she wants to do exactly but she knows it'll be some type of counselor, and being able to experience that in a place like a prison will help her get an idea of what does and doesn't work for her.

She went to school for social working and got her bachelors degree so she's qualified for the temporary position. It'll help her decide what paths she wants to take when she goes back for her masters.

She's truly looking forward to this and plans to take it seriously. It's something she's been talking to her dad about for a long time and he finally agreed to ask his bosses, who thankfully also agreed to let her do it. They said they needed another counselor so it really was just the perfect opportunity for her to jump in.

As she gets ready, Grayson goes over different scenarios in her head of what she could be put up against. It could be a more emotional and open inmate, who isn't afraid to have a conversation which is ideal but probably not likely. It could be someone who's emotionally closed off but not violent or mean in anyway. Or worst case scenario, it's someone who is violent and mean.

She thinks about how she'd deal with each type of person. She'd like to think she's good with people and figuring out how to talk to them in a way that will help them feel more comfortable.

Grayson knows that she's a very empathetic person and this is probably her greatest strength and also her greatest weakness. She reminds herself a lot that she needs to stay neutral and not get personally attached to any client of hers. It's one of the most important rules in the field of social work.