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a day in the life of a lasallian volunteer
Monday, January 17, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
so why are you here?
i wish i would have counted the number of times i have been asked this question since i moved to wisconsin. "i went to college in ny." "whatttt...so why are you here?!' the conversation generally goes something like this and usually leads to me explaining what lasallian volunteers is and where i work and in fact, why i am actually living in racine.
but even after answering this question a countless number of times, i still feel like i havent really answered it for anyone! i know the answer to the question, but its not anything that i can tell someone in a quick 20 second explanation. so i figured it would be nice to actually be able to explain my thought process in a blog entry :)
when i first moved here, there were zero reasons in my mind as to why i was being sent to live in racine. my answer to this question in august was something like "i am taking part in a year long volunteer experience and this is where i was placed" followed by me thinking "what have i gotten myself into?!"
over winter break i was talking about my experience so far with someone and my response was no longer "what have i gotten myself into?!" but instead it was "this is what i am supposed to be doing right now." and it felt good to finally be able to say that! her and i continued talking and she told me about a service experience she had in ecuador when they were asked the same question. "so why are you here?" and at first there seems like there is not really a clear answer and then all of a sudden, one day, something happens and there are tonssssss of reasons as to why you are doing what you are doing. when she said this i couldnt agree more! i now see lots of reasons as to why my journey has lead me to serving at john xxiii educational center.
so why am i here? as surprising as it sounds, the list is longggg and sometimes i cant even articulate what exactly it is that proves to me that i am in fact supposed to be here. the obvious answers: because the kids here need someone to remind them that school is important, to show them that adults actually value what they think and do, and because without the work of the center, many of these kids would simply fall through the cracks. the other (more important) answers: because i cant remembered a time in life when i have grown this much in such a short amount of time, i can build relationships with students and families that are easily dismissed by others, and because if you dont try something you will never know if you actually like it!
but even after answering this question a countless number of times, i still feel like i havent really answered it for anyone! i know the answer to the question, but its not anything that i can tell someone in a quick 20 second explanation. so i figured it would be nice to actually be able to explain my thought process in a blog entry :)
when i first moved here, there were zero reasons in my mind as to why i was being sent to live in racine. my answer to this question in august was something like "i am taking part in a year long volunteer experience and this is where i was placed" followed by me thinking "what have i gotten myself into?!"
over winter break i was talking about my experience so far with someone and my response was no longer "what have i gotten myself into?!" but instead it was "this is what i am supposed to be doing right now." and it felt good to finally be able to say that! her and i continued talking and she told me about a service experience she had in ecuador when they were asked the same question. "so why are you here?" and at first there seems like there is not really a clear answer and then all of a sudden, one day, something happens and there are tonssssss of reasons as to why you are doing what you are doing. when she said this i couldnt agree more! i now see lots of reasons as to why my journey has lead me to serving at john xxiii educational center.
so why am i here? as surprising as it sounds, the list is longggg and sometimes i cant even articulate what exactly it is that proves to me that i am in fact supposed to be here. the obvious answers: because the kids here need someone to remind them that school is important, to show them that adults actually value what they think and do, and because without the work of the center, many of these kids would simply fall through the cracks. the other (more important) answers: because i cant remembered a time in life when i have grown this much in such a short amount of time, i can build relationships with students and families that are easily dismissed by others, and because if you dont try something you will never know if you actually like it!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
pay it forward 2011
pay it forward 2011
i promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. they must in turn post this on facebook, twitter, a blog, or forward it via email and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment wherever they choose to post it. the rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011. so leave a comment here, send me an email, or comment on the link on facebook or twitter and you may be getting a handmade surprise from yours truly sometime in 2011! :)
i promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. they must in turn post this on facebook, twitter, a blog, or forward it via email and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment wherever they choose to post it. the rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011. so leave a comment here, send me an email, or comment on the link on facebook or twitter and you may be getting a handmade surprise from yours truly sometime in 2011! :)
Saturday, January 1, 2011
out with the old, in with the new
happy 2011! it is hard to believe that 2010 is already over- it was a big year! i rang in 2010 by traveling to kenya, graduated from college, and moved to wisconsin. i did a lot of good things, a lot of things that i probably shouldnt have, and wished i would have done some other things- but i had fun doing it! and ive learned a lotttttt, which is never a bad thing :) soooo here is my list of wise words from 2010:
1. whoever said change is good was right- sort of. in the end, change is always good, but in the beginning it can be challenging, but thats what makes it worthwhile!
2. i am so so so lucky. i have a house, an education, a great family, great friends, and plenty of opportunities to come :)
3. kids are funny! and smart! and we really dont give them enough credit most of the time
4. you cant miss something or appreciate it if you dont spend time away from it
5. happiness = success!
6. there really is someone who always has it worse than you do
7. dont be afraid to try something new, especially if its something you NEVERRRRR pictured yourself doing- you might like it!
cliche, yess...but true! 2010 was a really great year and although i am sad to see it go, i hope that 2011 will be just as good and maybe even better. plans for 2011? i have no idea...im going in with an open mind, an open heart, and expecting the unexpected!
1. whoever said change is good was right- sort of. in the end, change is always good, but in the beginning it can be challenging, but thats what makes it worthwhile!
2. i am so so so lucky. i have a house, an education, a great family, great friends, and plenty of opportunities to come :)
3. kids are funny! and smart! and we really dont give them enough credit most of the time
4. you cant miss something or appreciate it if you dont spend time away from it
5. happiness = success!
6. there really is someone who always has it worse than you do
7. dont be afraid to try something new, especially if its something you NEVERRRRR pictured yourself doing- you might like it!
cliche, yess...but true! 2010 was a really great year and although i am sad to see it go, i hope that 2011 will be just as good and maybe even better. plans for 2011? i have no idea...im going in with an open mind, an open heart, and expecting the unexpected!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
snowpocalypse 2k10
snow, snow, and more snow! the cons: its cold, i havent left the house today, and it would have been nice to leave wisconsin for some warmer weather. the pros: not leaving the house has given me time to be pretty productive today and has even given me the time to update my blog :)
being home has been really great so far...tons of concrete, cars, pollution, and noise :) merry christmas to me! i have definitely missed my family and friends and i couldnt really imagine being anywhere else at christmas time than here. but i do miss working, and having a routine, and laughing hysterically at middle school kids!
theres not too much to report since i have really been using my time at home to visit with everyone and do nothing while i have the time to. snowpocalypse 2k10 is well underway and supposedly wont be over until tomorrow night. and i was worried about wisconsin winters!
being home has been really great so far...tons of concrete, cars, pollution, and noise :) merry christmas to me! i have definitely missed my family and friends and i couldnt really imagine being anywhere else at christmas time than here. but i do miss working, and having a routine, and laughing hysterically at middle school kids!
theres not too much to report since i have really been using my time at home to visit with everyone and do nothing while i have the time to. snowpocalypse 2k10 is well underway and supposedly wont be over until tomorrow night. and i was worried about wisconsin winters!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
115 days down...172 days to go
115 days = 16 weeks and 3 days = 4 months = time i have lived in wisconsin! and after all this time i will finally be going home for 2 whole weeks on friday! i guess 4 months isnt really that much but i feel like i have been gone for soooo long even though the last 4 month have FLOWN by...
last weekend we were in memphis for our marathon fundraiser. it was really nice to be able to get to some warmer weather and see all the other volunteers, especially fellow jaspers! i can now say that i have officially completed my first 5K and i was even able to raise $5 more than my fundraising goals- not bad at all! thanks to everyone who donated!
other than that, things have been pretty much the same. the kids have been a little lazy with their hw lately, but i get it. the time between thanksgiving and christmas is always like that. i am with them- its time for a break! but they still have me cracking up on a daily basis and thats never a bad thing :)
i really just cant believe that half of my year is over. there are days when i feel like i just moved to wisconsin yesterday and there are other days when i feel like i have lived here forever. the dreaded question of whether or not i will back for year 2 has been coming up a lot more than usual lately, for better or for worse. the kids have asked me a bunch of times, and we have gotten the information about how to renew if we want to, and i have thought about it as well. and i still have mixed emotions about it. sometimes i think about how this has been a great experience and i am ready to do something else and sometimes i think that there is no way that i can do what i want to do here in 172 days and that i need more time.
the good thing is that i still have more time to make my decision and i really think having some time away will help me gain some clarity over the whole situation. no rushing any decisions for now- we all know how much i loveeeee to decide on things :)
nothing too earth shattering in other news. or maybe there is and i just forgot. oh well, if that is the case please accept my sincerest apologies!
i dont think i will have time to update again before i leave so i guess thats it. 5 more days of midwest life and then im back to the new york. yayyyy- see you soon east coast!
last weekend we were in memphis for our marathon fundraiser. it was really nice to be able to get to some warmer weather and see all the other volunteers, especially fellow jaspers! i can now say that i have officially completed my first 5K and i was even able to raise $5 more than my fundraising goals- not bad at all! thanks to everyone who donated!
other than that, things have been pretty much the same. the kids have been a little lazy with their hw lately, but i get it. the time between thanksgiving and christmas is always like that. i am with them- its time for a break! but they still have me cracking up on a daily basis and thats never a bad thing :)
i really just cant believe that half of my year is over. there are days when i feel like i just moved to wisconsin yesterday and there are other days when i feel like i have lived here forever. the dreaded question of whether or not i will back for year 2 has been coming up a lot more than usual lately, for better or for worse. the kids have asked me a bunch of times, and we have gotten the information about how to renew if we want to, and i have thought about it as well. and i still have mixed emotions about it. sometimes i think about how this has been a great experience and i am ready to do something else and sometimes i think that there is no way that i can do what i want to do here in 172 days and that i need more time.
the good thing is that i still have more time to make my decision and i really think having some time away will help me gain some clarity over the whole situation. no rushing any decisions for now- we all know how much i loveeeee to decide on things :)
nothing too earth shattering in other news. or maybe there is and i just forgot. oh well, if that is the case please accept my sincerest apologies!
i dont think i will have time to update again before i leave so i guess thats it. 5 more days of midwest life and then im back to the new york. yayyyy- see you soon east coast!
Friday, November 26, 2010
i'm a believer
i must begin with my apologies on not updating my faithful readers on my super exciting life in almost 3 weeks! november has been soooo busy and now that thanksgiving has given me some time off of work, i finally am able to take some time to update everyone on the last few weeks. so yes this will be long...but it will be worth it! :)
we have had a visitor at our house every weekend in november! my mom came for a weekend, court came to visit, and jolleen, the associate director of the lasallian volunteers was here right before thanksgiving. (all the volunteers get a visit from one of the programs administrators twice a year to check in and see how everything is going) it was nice to have different people around and spend some time with people from home. i cant believe that i have been in wisconsin for 3 whole months! time has definitely gone by quickly but it was nice to have some familiar faces around, especially right before thanksgiving.
work has been going well. i am busy, but not too busy :) and the kids are so great. they are hilarious and i constantly find myself entertained by them. i wish that i could pass of their jokes as my own but im not so sure they would be as funny coming from me as they are coming from them.
jolleen was the person was responsible for my whole interview process with the lasallian volunteers so i thought it was pretty fitting that she was also coming for our site visit. leading up to her visit i thought a lot about my whole interview process and how reluctant i was to agree to come to racine for my year of service so i decided that when she came to visit i was going to investigate the whole placement process which i prefer to think of as a draft :)
the only thing i really remember about the conversation i had with jolleen when she told me i was moving to wisconsin was me responding with "yea, no, i really dont see myself there". when i asked jolleen what she remembered she said that she was surprised that i asked her if there were cows there. HAHA yes, i probabaly did do that too! and i think it went something like "when i think of wisconsin, all i think of is cows. there is no way that racine is urban." jolleen also told me how surprised she was that i agreed to come to racine with so little persuasion on her part. she said that when i told her that i was going to agree to my placement she thought i was either really resilient and up for a challenge or completely crazy. i think its a little of both!
it was nice to have jolleen here to not only answer my burning questions about placement, but also to check in with and talk about how everything has been going this year so far. we talked about how this whole experience has surprisingly made me consider teaching in the future and how i really feel that i have learned just as much, if not more, from the students i work with as they have learned from me.
a big part of my experience that i shared with jolleen was the fact that i often think about the students i work with and how they have lived more life in their time up to middle or high school than i probably will live in my entire life. in the past 3 months, i have heard more stories about families that are struggling, brothers and sisters who are in jail, people who have been shot or killed, and the difficulties of having family in two countries at once than i have in my entire life. and the kids tell me like its nothing! it is so crazy for me to think that a lot of these situations are "normal" for them and i admire them for the adversity that they often face. the meaning of resiliency has never been so clear to me!
yesterday we spent the day in chicago at two different lasallian communities for the thanksgiving holiday. both of the communities have lasallian volunteers, but only one of the communities has brothers living with them. it was nice to see everyone again and spend time with a bigger group for thanksgiving. we were able to see how everyones service work was going and get a change of scenery for the day.
on our way home, desiree and i were talking about the hoidays, and our work, and our time at thanksgiving and we both agreed that...
DRUMROLLLL PLEASE (because you never thought that i would say this!)
we are so happy that we are in racine. i know! i was kind of surprised too! i mean, are there things i dont love about my experience so far? yes. do i miss living in new york? absolutely. do i sometimes wish that i was closer to my family and friends? of course. but its normal to feel those things and i have no regrets about taking part in this experience.
so yes, here is my shout out to jolleen, alissa, mari, and zac...i get it now. i'm a believer. and i know why you guys are in charge! :)
i think that pretty much sums it up for now. 2 more weeks until christmas break! yayyyyyyy :) and one more week until the marathon. i reached my fundraising goal! but that doesnt mean you still cant donate all that money you saved this morning on your black friday sales to yours truly :) heres the link...https://lasallianvolunteers.myetap.org/fundraiser/lvsrunninginmemphis/individual.do?participationRef=4586.0.2022467
we have had a visitor at our house every weekend in november! my mom came for a weekend, court came to visit, and jolleen, the associate director of the lasallian volunteers was here right before thanksgiving. (all the volunteers get a visit from one of the programs administrators twice a year to check in and see how everything is going) it was nice to have different people around and spend some time with people from home. i cant believe that i have been in wisconsin for 3 whole months! time has definitely gone by quickly but it was nice to have some familiar faces around, especially right before thanksgiving.
work has been going well. i am busy, but not too busy :) and the kids are so great. they are hilarious and i constantly find myself entertained by them. i wish that i could pass of their jokes as my own but im not so sure they would be as funny coming from me as they are coming from them.
jolleen was the person was responsible for my whole interview process with the lasallian volunteers so i thought it was pretty fitting that she was also coming for our site visit. leading up to her visit i thought a lot about my whole interview process and how reluctant i was to agree to come to racine for my year of service so i decided that when she came to visit i was going to investigate the whole placement process which i prefer to think of as a draft :)
the only thing i really remember about the conversation i had with jolleen when she told me i was moving to wisconsin was me responding with "yea, no, i really dont see myself there". when i asked jolleen what she remembered she said that she was surprised that i asked her if there were cows there. HAHA yes, i probabaly did do that too! and i think it went something like "when i think of wisconsin, all i think of is cows. there is no way that racine is urban." jolleen also told me how surprised she was that i agreed to come to racine with so little persuasion on her part. she said that when i told her that i was going to agree to my placement she thought i was either really resilient and up for a challenge or completely crazy. i think its a little of both!
it was nice to have jolleen here to not only answer my burning questions about placement, but also to check in with and talk about how everything has been going this year so far. we talked about how this whole experience has surprisingly made me consider teaching in the future and how i really feel that i have learned just as much, if not more, from the students i work with as they have learned from me.
a big part of my experience that i shared with jolleen was the fact that i often think about the students i work with and how they have lived more life in their time up to middle or high school than i probably will live in my entire life. in the past 3 months, i have heard more stories about families that are struggling, brothers and sisters who are in jail, people who have been shot or killed, and the difficulties of having family in two countries at once than i have in my entire life. and the kids tell me like its nothing! it is so crazy for me to think that a lot of these situations are "normal" for them and i admire them for the adversity that they often face. the meaning of resiliency has never been so clear to me!
yesterday we spent the day in chicago at two different lasallian communities for the thanksgiving holiday. both of the communities have lasallian volunteers, but only one of the communities has brothers living with them. it was nice to see everyone again and spend time with a bigger group for thanksgiving. we were able to see how everyones service work was going and get a change of scenery for the day.
on our way home, desiree and i were talking about the hoidays, and our work, and our time at thanksgiving and we both agreed that...
DRUMROLLLL PLEASE (because you never thought that i would say this!)
we are so happy that we are in racine. i know! i was kind of surprised too! i mean, are there things i dont love about my experience so far? yes. do i miss living in new york? absolutely. do i sometimes wish that i was closer to my family and friends? of course. but its normal to feel those things and i have no regrets about taking part in this experience.
so yes, here is my shout out to jolleen, alissa, mari, and zac...i get it now. i'm a believer. and i know why you guys are in charge! :)
i think that pretty much sums it up for now. 2 more weeks until christmas break! yayyyyyyy :) and one more week until the marathon. i reached my fundraising goal! but that doesnt mean you still cant donate all that money you saved this morning on your black friday sales to yours truly :) heres the link...https://lasallianvolunteers.myetap.org/fundraiser/lvsrunninginmemphis/individual.do?participationRef=4586.0.2022467
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