While having a conversation with a student who has a bit of a rough past but is trying to turn it around:

Me: Well, I trust each of you until you give me a reason not to.
Him: Really? You trust me? I bet you still wonder if I have a knife in my bag.
Me: Nope. You've never given me a reason not to trust you, so I will trust you until you do something otherwise.
Him (really skeptical): But how do you just trust someone? I don't trust anyone.

The whole conversation just made me sad - glad that I could be someone who sees good in him - but still, just so sad. We went on to talk about how sometimes you just need to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I know he wishes more people would do that for him. It's just tough to see a kid who made really, really (and I mean really) poor choices in the past try to make things right and hit resistance every step of the way. I wish more people would give him a chance to make things right, to make his life right, when it's clear he's trying so hard to do just that.