I made a massive goof up today and it’s been bothering me quite a lot. The security outside the center has had a lot of complaints against one boy in particular. The boy has been at the center for almost a year. On some days he’s not in a good spot and tends to create a ruckus. Initially he struggled with stealing as well though he has curbed that habit to a large extent. We’ve seen incredible growth from this boy but we have found him struggling to regulate his own body and emotions on some days. I felt that perhaps it would be a good idea to talk to the security guard at the center about this boy so that he could better empathise with him.  I had this conversation some time ago and I thought in general that it had gone somewhat okay. The security guard too agreed with me and to an extent was able to better understand why he sometimes creates a ruckus and calls him (the security guard) names. Today, I realised that what I had said was lost in translation quite badly. This same boy had created a ruckus and the security was complaining about him to me. He referred to the boy as the one who had some mental problems. I had tried to make a nuanced position but it seemed like it ended up in some sort of labelling. It made it all the worse since there were some other children around as well when he was discussing this with me. The other children later asked me why I had told the security guard that this boy had some mental problems. I had to try and explain that I hadn’t exactly said that and the security guard had misinterpreted what I said.  I felt quite terrible about this. We had been very careful until today to avoid labels of any kind. I also expected the security guard to better understand us since it has been almost a year of the program and he has closely seen us. However, it was a great learning experience for me. I realised that it is super important to figure out how to communicate our ideas to others especially in Kannada and Hindi. Perhaps it would be wise not to have small conversations regarding something like this and focus on having a larger dialogue.