Opening Day, Building a Playground, General Conference, and Perspective

Opening Day
The official presenting of City Year Sacramento to the City of Sacramento, and pretty much everyone. It started with mingling. Lots and lots of mingling. Holy moly. How squishy. (squishy is CY speak for 'out of comfort zone. I don't think I even have a comfort zone anymore). After a while, all the City Year corps members hid behind a bush, waited for the music, jumped out singing and dancing and all sorts of partying and ran to our spots. Mine happened to be on stage. Why? Because I was about to sing the national anthem with these folks.

Yes, this is rehearsal.
 Also, no, I didn't forget the words to The Star Spangled Banner.

I think it went well. Regardless of the fact that we were out of breath on account of having just sprinted to the front of the crowd. Four years ago, in Concert Choir as a scared Freshman, I never would have had the guts to do this. But I was only 14, the age of some of the students I'm working with now. Today, I thought this opportunity was a privilege. A privilege that made me so nervous I almost got sick (at least I didn't pass out like last time I sang in front of people), but still a really exciting privilege. After we sang, we all got to sit down. We listened to many inspiring speeches. Unfortunately, I am really not one to listen to speeches and get much out of them. I need a pen and some paper, at the very least. Preferably a study sheet and discussion. Anyway, the speeches really were great. Sweltering in the bombers (city year jackets) in the sun for an hour wasn't so great.

Also, I got a hug, kiss, and picture from this man, Mayor Kevin Johnson. He's a champion.

Building a Playground
On Saturday I built a playground. It was kind of epic. Also exhausting. There were some 125 volunteers there. And we built a playground.

Kaboom! is a nonprofit that recognizes the need for children to have a safe place to play. Their goal is to build enough playgrounds so that everyone in America is within walking distance of a safe place to play, or a playground. They were partnered with PG&E and The Salvation Army on Saturday.

Thanks to my teammate, Sayfoon, for this pic.

So many people, all working all day to build a playground.

General Conference
Was great, I'm sure. I only saw one session. Color me inactive.
I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I haven't missed a day of church since moving to Sacramento. Saturday I spent a whole day building a playground so sue me. (yes, I recognize I'm getting too defensive about this. Which is probably a sign. or something.) Sunday I only had Internet access at the local Starbucks, and my neck was stiff. So I only watched one.


Perspective
They say the first thing to go when you join City Year is sleep, and that is most certainly true. The second is perspective. Also true. Please have patience with me as I try to get it back.
Homesickness
I'm homesick. I believe as an 18 year 2 month 3 day old who just moved out of her parents' house and into the most stressful situation of her life (thus far), I am entitled to be homesick. You know what they say about entitlement... :P


Food
I am having so much fun cooking for myself. I never want to go back to eating other people's cooking. I eat a lot of beans and rice and spinach and potatoes and vegetables. I have had meat three times in two weeks. That seems like I'm hitting the 'sparingly' part of the Word Of Wisdom. I want fruit. And tofu. and a slow cooker. and a freaking spatula.


I don't know whether or not to go to college next year. It's either some university, or an LDS Mission. I'm leaning towards being a missionary, because I've wanted to go on a mission forever. But also because that means I won't have to apply to colleges.

And I hate college entrance essays. With a passion. I passionately hate college essays.


Ok, best moments:
That really awesome kid, who I care about sooooo much, and who also is the one who has spent the last few weeks very much hating me and all other City Year Corps members he has to deal with, finally said something not terrible to me. It was a sweet moment.

Also, I got a letter from a student. So I broke out my stationary and wrote her one back. :)

I worked with very specific students on their math. I feel purposeful.

I got a hug. And a long conversation, that helped a lot when I was having a hard time.

I have a new responsibility, monitoring the hallways during the afterschool homework class. All the students who aren't in class (for different reasons, the main ones being behavior issues) can come out with me. We run through multiplication tables, or read from a novel, and then we talk. I try to make it fun, so they work with me, but still effective and efficient use of learning time. I get to strengthen relationships with students I haven't had the chance to get to know yet. It's nice.

The joy of non-verbal communication: A student wants to get my attention, so they raise their hand, catch my eye, and motion me over. The teachers only get the hand raise. I get a little finger thing. When I want to get a student's attention, I just stare at them for a bit. Usually, when students are misbehaving, they glance at the teachers every few seconds, to see if they've been caught. When they look up at me, as they always do, I gesture at them to write/read/stop talking with a combination of complicated hand movements and facial expressions. I'm always pleasantly surprised that it works so well.

A kid handed me a permission slip. I'm a teacher in his class, so now I get to do teacher type things. Like collect late work. For some reason, this pleases me.

I am starting to see the sweetness and innocence in every child, not just the well-behaved kids. I'm reminded often that there are no bad kids, just bad choices. These kids are so good. I adore them. Every child in this school is still a child. Yes, they're dealing with stuff I can't imagine. But they are still sweet children.

I don't get asked about the bathroom anymore. That is strictly real teacher's job. YES!

I feel like I'm forgetting a hundred best moments. I need to write them down!

Ok, see you next week. Maybe.
I am having a hard time finding time/energy to write in this blog.