12.23.06
Posted in AV 2006-07 Domestic at 7:48 am by chamberlain
“Awe Miss, I need your shoes.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah, coach won’t let me play without tennis shoes and I don’t have mine. Can I wear yours?” Well sure, I can’t think of anything I would love more than to see my women’s sneakers on the basketball court. Life is never predictable at Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, Mass. I have worked up quite a handful of hilarious stories, and I think I’ve finally gained some insight worth sharing. I had been wondering what angle to take with this blog for some time. Then I remembered that I read the AV blogs while I was applying to the program to could get a better idea of what the volunteers did. So this is my “advice to future volunteers” blog, hope it’s useful.
I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line I realized that I love my job, and I love my students even more. The funny thing about this is that in August my sentiments were slightly less happy. I had a rocky start and that is a nice way of saying it. I arrived a week after school had started, I was swamped with work, and worst of all, the students learned very quickly how to manipulate me. I don’t know if I’ll ever forget my first class. The principal told me it would be easy. “The juniors are great; they won’t give you any trouble.” I waited for the students to enter the room and then tried for 20 minutes to calm everyone down just so I could introduce myself. They completely ignored me. I started to panic and pulled rank on one of the girls, Migdalia, telling her to sit down and be quiet. She got up in my face and accused me of singling her out and said, “You best not be accusing, I’d hate to see what happened to you if you accuse me.” Ah! This particular ray of sunshine has been my arch nemesis since that day. I don’t need to give a detailed explanation of every nightmare that followed so I’ll just say it was rough- really rough.
Now for the bright side. Little by little these little hellions won me over. I was sitting in class and one of my chillins told me how much it sucked that I was only there for one year, and for some reason this hit me pretty hard. I realized I was going to be incredibly sad leaving them (even now I don’t like thinking about it). I also felt guilty because the turnover rate at this school is so high that the kids never really get to make lasting connections with their teachers. So I guess that is when I realized, I love every single one of them more than I ever thought I could. My time there has just gotten better and better since then. One of my freshmen asked me to be her confirmation mentor (the greatest moment of my life). My biology students are doing well on their tests and participating in class, they even asked me to review with them at the last basketball game. My cooking elective is swamped with people who want in on our fun. We finally have a working discipline system. I was nominated sophomore class advisor and sophomores have really taken the initiative planning some awesome events that are going to make the school so much better. I am driving the fan van to the basketball games (and supplying the footwear 
). My roommates are so wonderful, they give me reason to wake up in the morning. I’ve become friends with the teachers and most importantly, Migdalia and I made peace.
So what is the moral of this story? Volunteering isn’t always smiling faces and glowing opportunities to help those in need. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it is uber hard, and sometimes progress is slow, but there is good news. It’s worth it. Every single moment of it is absolutely worth it. Good luck and God bless.
Sarah.
Lawrence
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12.15.06
Posted in AV 2006-07 Domestic at 10:40 am by Lauren Fawls
“Advent is a time to slow down, a time to reflect and prepare, a time for patience. Seems contradictory when usually this can be the most hectic time of year, a time when we rush to get everything done, a time that can be easy filled with frustrations, rushing around, and anything but patience”
These thoughts were offered at Mass this past Sunday. And it has stuck with me just how true they are. The beginning of this week I dreaded writing this blog. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, I have a million other things to do, I’m just not in the right mood. All excuses I gave for why I could maybe push it off. But then maybe I just needed to slow down for a minute and take that second to reflect to really notice what was going on.
I have been trying to rush the past two weeks along. “I need a break, I’m just too tired and I can’t seem to do anything right”. This is how I have felt most of the time. This year I am busier than I have ever been before. If I am not chasing 20 two year olds around the daycare room twice a day, I am in afterschool, planning lessons, meeting with someone or trying to plan something else. There is always work to be done or something to do. Usually I like to tie things into a neat little bow, but with this, it is the way it is, and what has been most difficult for me is to truly find time in all of the hecticness. Lately, I have been trying to figure out what gives me focus or can create some sense of calm in the middle of the busiest city in the US.
It’s the little child who hadn’t spoken a word in 4 months who now tells me all about zapatos, the woman who works with me sending me medicine when I took a sick day, finding something that keeps the “troublemaker” out of trouble, sitting in the prayer room and venting for hours, meeting people in the community, decorating the Christmas tree in the rectory while the priests watch us, talking with the priests at Monday night dinner, weekly prayer. These are all the things that can get caught up in the rush of things, but really, they are what matters. I have noticed that the work maybe be hard and there may not be much free time but since I have arrived in New York, I have come to value relationships much more. Because in the middle of everything, when it comes down to it, the relationships are what matter, what can keep you going, and what will give you a sense of purpose. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have my commmunity to come home and talk to, or if I never learned about the women I work with, or took the kids I work with as my own for a few hours a day. These are the places where I find my energy, these are the relationships that help me to realize that I am not just filling a space, I am working to accomplish something. The relationships I have formed since August have helped me to find a home in the Bronx, and have given me new insight to myself and to my faith that I didn’t expect to recieve.
The first day we arrived in the Bronx we took a walk down Fordham Road then came home to settle in our apartment. If you had asked me that night I would have guessed that I wasn’t going to last a week. I was nervous about living with people I barely knew, starting a new job that I had never done before, and just trying to keep everything together. Work still feels like I am going in for the first time most days and there are still challenges, but I have found a support system in those people I barely knew four months ago, I have developed relationships and started to find a place in our little section of the Bronx. Things may be hectic and sometimes I feel like things are flying by at speeds I can’t control but every day is a new chance to slow things down a little and really see what is going on around me.
Lauren Fawls
Bronx
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