(dis) Couragement

How do you convince someone to believe in them self?

When Ranger Man went to Ranger School he was convinced that he could do all three phases in one try and he knew it was going to suck and it was going to be hard, but he was convinced that he would do it. He believed in himself, and it was easy to facilitate that belief and confidence and help him.

With this school though, he is out of his element. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that he is discouraged. It's much harder to convince him that he's awesome and amazing and will do a fantastic job when he absolutely doesn't believe it himself. Plus it's hard over the phone or through letters. I can tell him that he's wonderful, but there's no one to show him that he's wonderful, and there is a big difference. So I talk to him and I write to him and we make plans for when we get to see each other again. On the one hand- I've told him that whether or not he completes this course doesn't make any bit of difference to me, because he'll still be him. But on the other hand, I know that it would be horrible for him to not pass.

So I'm not sure what else to do, other than more of the same. What I want to do is bake him a cake, but I'm not sure how that would mail... I think baked goods make everything all better.

On the bright side, only 30 more days until Thanksgiving... (not that I'm counting, or anything)