Sad story

Had parent conferences last night and the night before. Here's typically what I'm thinking:

"Man, that kid took forever to turn in his friggin' essay. Jeez, he's got to get his act together; this is ridiculous. Let's look up his other grades--5 F's! Let's definitely have a parent conference."

Then, the parent shows up, and occasionally I find out that my students are dealing with so many difficult situations in life, it's no wonder when students don't complete a stupid essay.

Ie: Found out a student like above has a 10-years-left-in-life prognosis (and some other things I won't go into). Shit. Every time I think about it, my eyes are welling up.