channeling my inner linn and curt

One of the best things about my job is that I am just literally here to say yes. I am here to nurture ideas that just need someone to believe in them. I am here to encourage people that just need reassurance that they, in fact, can. I am here to push further, to bring new perspective. In any way that I can, I am here to help.

In case anyone was confused about what day it is, it's October 1st, which means, I MOVED INTO MY HOUSE!

So in the first few months that I was here, I met with a young teacher who wanted to collaborate in the classroom with her English students. For those of you who know me, you know that patience is not my strong suit, so I was never destined to follow in the footsteps and fill the massive shoes of my parents. However, I agreed, because if there is one thing I know to be true having grown up with parents like mine, it's that students need and deserve someone in their lives that believes in them, and often, the students that are hardest to handle, are the students that are just out there begging for that person to show up. So I agreed, and I hoped that when the time came, I could be that someone for some unruly students.

I also bought a new lamp for my house.

So fast forward to early September, I met again with this young teacher, and we began planning an event for the International Day of Languages. We decided that we would have a sort of talent showcase for students to show off their skills in other languages through song and spoken word, and even to celebrate another culture, my own. We planned a rehearsal, 6 out of the 20 students showed up. We planned a second rehearsal, no students showed up. We decided that without having had those rehearsals, students wouldn't be able to learn the American line dance, so we removed it from the line up to the dismay of the students who promptly called me at work and summoned me to the school during their free period in order to learn this dance.

45 minutes later and I felt like I was back at a college party when all of the sudden everyone falls into formation like it was all planned in advance. I also though, felt something unexpected on that random Wednesday in the Student Government room, an echo of pride. They got it, and every single one of them wanted to individually show me that they could do it, they could dance like an American, seemingly only to hear my affirmation that they were, in fact, "doing it". Their pride in this dance, in this event, was so glaring, so radiating, that even this thing that is second nature to me and my feet, felt suddenly so sacred. This dance was a bond of sorts between me and these 6 students, these 6 unruly, noisy students, that just wanted someone to go the extra mile for them. The thing was, they didn't need to come to me, they needed me to come to them, and when I set aside my work and met them where they were, we did it.

4 hours, a full tube of superglue, and 6 painful cuts later, my new lamp has been resurrected. So, please enjoy this photo of my bedroom feat. my Frankenstein lamp (left, behind many, many things).

So the next day, after a morning of running around talking to the Peace Corps, talking to the school directors, looking for a microphone, and absolutely panicking (a story for another day), I got to sit back and watch these students perform. I got to hear incredible voices singing, I got to hear inspirational quotes recited, and I got to see an American dance performed. Then, I got to see that dance being taught to others.

Since that day, it has been requested that I come back to help with English class. Despite the unruliness, the loudness, and the frustration that I will inevitably experience, I think I'll go. Actually, I think I might just be a regular.