Before I start, I want everyone to watch this 2 minute video clip on City Year from the perspective of a fifth grader- it is awesome!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yezc00Cj9q8&feature=player_embedded
I have been in Boston 5 weeks and with City Year for 1 month and already I am changing. I have been fortunate enough to be completely enveloped by people whose goodness manifests differently or more effectively than my own. Like osmosis, the actions of my teammates and roommates are affecting me beyond my control- I am just soaking it in and hopefully reciprocating. I could go on and on about individuals, but I will give you a quick picture assuming I will be writing about this a lot in the upcoming months.
Each Friday morning City Year (in every site across the country) does something called PT. We say the city year pledge and the PT chant and finally we do physical training (awesome moves that I am sure Kate will be happy to demonstrate for those of you in Columbus). Each team (each at a different school) has to conquer the PT routine (absolute uniformity and perfection) in order to earn an essential uniform part: the Timbaland boots.
My team was practicing Wednesday afternoon when a homeless man approached my teammate Lisa and started talking to her about City Year and how it's so great. He was clearly in no mood to end soon, and Lisa is the type of person that will listen attentively and reach out to everyone (barring the violent) and she was not about to cut this man off. Some members of my team were saying: "Come on we have to practice- say something nice to him and then cut him off as politely as possible". Others were laughing, because Lisa frequently has stories of crazy people that shout at her or talk to her in the street, and it was striking that in a large group of people this man chose her to talk to. I participated in both reactions. Finally, we told the man that we had to practice and we started to move.
After the man had left one of our team leaders (City Year corps members who have returned to lead teams for their second year of service), Sam, called us out saying that it is unacceptable to ever laugh at a man like that. The abruptness of his comment and an immediate reflection on my behavior really startled me and made me feel very dramatically down. It was one of those moments that affects you more than you can account for. Our other team leader, Kevin, picked up on how I was feeling (it was unfortunately visible) and quietly came over to me during our routine to make sure that I was alright. Not wanting to make a scene I shook my head indicating that I was fine.
I recovered a semblance of composure and another teammate Eliza, asked me what was wrong? I knew that if I opened my mouth, I would demonstrate the opposite of being okay (a state I wanted to be), so I kept it clamped shut and shook my head again. We finished our practice and she came up to me again, and this time I felt more at ease talking with her. When the team arrived back at head quarters Kevin pulled me aside despite my reassurances that my reaction wasn't in fact a reaction to anything. I was just in one of those weird moods. He disregarded this and asked me again what was wrong. It was nice that Kevin and Eliza not only noticed, but persisted in trying to help me out.
I write this story not to relay a drama that in reality makes me cringe, but instead to point out that in the course of an hour I observed 4 of my 17 member team acting in a way that I will reflect upon in the future and try to emulate. For this reason I love meeting new people. It is not always apparent to me when I am doing something that does not reflect my values or when I should be more actively good, but when I meet and get to know others I find so many specific ways that I can improve, and specifics really help. Getting to know new people acts like religion for me.
I would love to hear feedback from those of you reading this blog in the form of "comments" or whatever. I write this not only to keep people informed, but also to keep working on my writing, so constructive feedback is crucial!!!! Also I am introducing City Year terms that I have to keep in mind you may not be familiar with: corps member versus team leader, for example. If I need to clarify further these terms or anything else that I am writing about, Hit me up!!!
Until Next Week,
Nora
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