Hello friends!
Though I’ve been in Chicago for almost two months now, tomorrow will mark the end of my first week serving at Sherman School of Excellence. For the past five weeks I’ve been part of an intensive training program in which we’re almost completely indoctrinated with City Year culture, expectations, rules and regulations, so on and so forth. I’ve sat through dozens of training’s and seminars on teaching, tutoring, mentoring and coaching, school improvement initiatives, community integration, gang violence and the communities in West- and South-side Chicago, behavior management, and the list goes on! Though it started off really interesting, by the end of August all I wanted to do was get into my school and start working with the students. And now, it’s official, I’m a week in and it has already been a rollercoaster.
I’ve had to break-up fights, do way more behavior management than I hoped, and taught kids how to read and do simple math. But for as mentally and emotionally draining as this week has been, it’s almost the weekend and I can’t wait to get back in that school. The kids are hilarious and crazy and really approachable and willing to learn. They just need someone to sit there and re-direct them to the task they need to get done. I was working with one student in particular today, he spent the whole time calling me “Miss Lady” and trying to distract me with cute statements in order to not do his work. But once he was on track and he understood it, all he wanted to do was participate and go to the board to show everyone he knew what he was doing. It was awesome.
Aside from that, I’ve met a lot of people in the program and through my roommates. The program is really diverse, I’m meeting people from all over the United States who have taught me so much. But I also find myself missing all of you guys. I find myself talking about experiences or sayings that my roommates would never understand (I recently introduced them to the concept of “soaking”, they’re obsessed with making “soaking” jokes now–poor example, I know.) But it’s also fun to sit around and share with them all these awesome experiences from the past four years of my life, experiences that have made me who I am (and of course, it’s fun to hear about everything that has shaped them to be who they are.) At times I do wish that I had you guys around just because I find myself missing the support of my old friends who know me so much better. However, this new life has been pretty amazing and I am very much in love with Chicago.
This is just turning into rambling, so before I write a whole book about how much I miss you guys and wish I could introduce the new people in my life to all the awesome people I’ve spent the past years with, I’ll just stop. I hope everyone is doing well in their respective hemispheres, I love reading your updates!
Vous me manquez tous.
- Neen
