Staying Put

After not nearly as much deliberation as I had originally anticipated, I have decided to forego my acceptance into law school at UW in favor of doing a second year of service with AmeriCorps. I've made this decision based on several things, and I truly believe that it is the best decision for me at this point.

The Sunday after finding out that I had been accepted into law school, it already seemed pretty clear that I wanted to do another year. Despite the fact that going to law school at UW is a dream for me, I realized that the law school is still going to be there next year, but I may never get another opportunity to do what I'm doing right now. I knew coming into this experience that I would have a lot of fun and memorable moments, but I don't think I could've ever anticipated falling in love with what I am doing the way that I have. I know I've said it a lot in the past couple of months, but I'll say it again, I always feel excited to go to school, and there's always a moment in each day that makes everything worthwhile.

Throughout the past few months I've begun to realize how important this year has been for me. Not only has it helped me put what I've been blessed with into perspective, it's also helped me understand what I really want to do with my life. I can say definitively that I want to work with kids as my profession. While I can't say for certain what my profession will be, I know that I'll make it point to use my talents to help kids. I feel that my calling, my vocation, is service and even more particular service dedicated to youth. Where that will lead me, I haven't the faintest idea, but that's never scared me too much in the past.

As high as my expectations were coming into things this year, I think I'll have even higher expectations of myself next year. I've already begun to think of ways to really make next year an awesome year not just for myself, but for the kids I'm working with along with my fellow AmeriCorps members. Without a doubt I'm excited for what lies ahead of me once again.

What's Good?

I'm using a popular greeting used by a lot of kids for the title of this post because I couldn't think of anything else and I think it focuses more on the positive things going on rather than the negatives.

As most of you have probably heard by now I did get accepted into the UW Law School over the weekend. Between finding that out and going to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, it was a great weekend from my end. I got to witness plenty of great basketball only feeding my excitement for the Big Dance more. I have yet to decided what I'll be doing next year, but the two options are sticking around in St. Louis for another year with AmeriCorps or going off to law school in Madison. I'm hoping to have my decision made by the end of the month and will let everyone know as soon as I make it which direction I'm going.

I've feel like I've been really hitting my stride with all of the kids at the school. That's not to say I'm into the clear, but on the whole, I've got the hang of this whole mentoring thing. Part of that has been recognizing that it sometimes takes time to work through the problems with different kids. I guess I knew coming in that different people react and learn differently, but I'm really seeing first hand that just because something works with one kid doesn't necessarily mean it will work with another kid. I find it funny that for as much as I try to make the kids think about things in a different way, they constantly have me thinking without even realizing it. I can't even begin to say how often I find myself trying to come up with a way to reach a student or help them. If I wasn't analytical enough before taking this position, there is absolutely no doubt that I've honed that skill.

One thing that I don't think I'll ever get used to is how the teachers and other staff sometimes are with a student. For instance, today I was talking with a very strong-headed girl who doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. As I was talking to her a teacher said out loud so she could hear as well as other students, "Why even bother with talking to her?" His thing was that until someone shuts this girl up she'll keeping running her mouth. I don't doubt that by me talking to her just this once will change her, but if nothing else the next time she gets to running her mouth, if it even crosses her mind what I said, that's a success to me. It takes a long time for an oak tree to grow, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't plant it in the first place. I guess I'm living by the motto that "It's better to have tried and failed, than to never have tried at all." So until someone gives me a valid reason for not bothering with it, I'll continue to try even if I don't succeed.

So that's what's good with me.

It's Been a While

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have two "excuses." The first is that every time I'm about to sit down and give an update, something comes up or I'm too tired to post. Secondly, there hasn't been anything huge to report, but I do have some things that everyone might find interesting.

I continue enjoy going to school each day. Despite the neverending challenges, there's always something at the end of the day that keeps me excited for the next day. Since taking two of the girls I've been mentoring ice skating, we've finally started clicking a lot better. I wish I would of thought of doing something outside of school with them months ago, because it's been night and day in how they respond to me the past couple of weeks. On the other side of the coin, Ronald, one of my boys seems to regressing. He doesn't seem to care about doing any work at all. When we discuss these things he makes excuses. I worry that he's digging himself a hole too deep to get out of.

Even though I'm working with only 5 kids specifically, I've recently tried to get to know a lot of the other kids, in particular in the 6th grade as well. Since I'm in the classrooms a lot and just around the school in general, I've taken a couple of other students under my wing informally. One girl in particular, Lashay, I felt really needed someone on her side. She's hardly an angel and I wouldn't even say that she's misunderstood, but she's seemed to reach the point that there isn't anyone at the school, students, teacher or staff, that is very fond of her. I actually started talking to her after noticing that there was an esclating situation between her and 4 other girls in her class, one of those girls being a girl that I mentor. After sitting down and talking to Yolanda, the girl I mentor, I started finding more out about the situation, and from my observation it seemed that Lashay was more of a victim and was even standing up to some of the other girls bullying other students, including Yolanda. Because I don't want to see this reach a point where it turns ugly, I've talked to all of the girls involved about sitting down and trying to talk through everything. I'm hoping it will give them all a chance to listen to what the others have to say and maybe put some things into perspective. As for Lashay, she really has no friends at the school or anyone to back her up and I think because of that she's very defensive with students and teachers; I'm hoping with some of my wisdom along with just being someone she can talk to or advocate for her once in a while will help her straighten up. I guess it's the defense lawyer in me wanting to protect the "disliked."

Tomorrow night we'll be having a lock-in at our school with another one of the middle schools. I think it will be a lot of fun, but I'm a little nervous about having to be responsible for 30 middle schoolers. To help me take the edge off after the lock-in, I'll be using the rest of the weekend to enjoy some high quality college basketball. To gear up for the Final Four I'll be going to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I'm pumped to see some of the teams that could pull off upsets later in the month in the Big Dance. I'll also be pulling for my two teams back home: NDA and St. Matt's. Good luck to both teams as they continue on the road to titles in their respective tournaments.

I hope everyone is doing well. Anyone can feel free to call or e-mail me.