Idealism VS Realism

FALL in DC :)

So these past few weeks have been very up and down. There have been days where I need to look back to the first week I was in DC and remember why I came and why I serve. I knew this year would be tough, but there are some days where I want to crawl in my bed and cry or fly back to LA. While the tough times are rough...the good times make it all worth it and I know that I am here for the long haul. Some nights I can barely keep my eyes open past 9 o'clock and others I don't even get home til 9:30. Each morning my alarm goes off between 4:45 (if I workout) and 5:30, so those nights I don't make it past 9:30 I really appreciate the next day :)

Luckily during a low moment I got to go to San Francisco for the Nike Women's Half Marathon that I signed up for while still at LMU and before I knew I'd be on the east coast. It was such an amazing weekend to get to the west coast and be with my sister. The race was the perfect excuse to use miles and get a break from City Year and the east coast.



While I wasn't home...I felt almost like it being on the West Coast in a familiar city with Kelsey. I also got to see Marians (college friends) who ran as well and Emily :) This little taste of home definitely gave me a huge boost upon my return to keep my head up during the long, tough days.



The race was awesome as well and I broke 2 hours, which was my goal. It was freezing and ended up raining a couple minutes after my finish, but the course was beautiful and Nike catered to us runners :) I then got to walk up a couple blocks to Kelsey's place for a nice warm shower and a relaxing afternoon before I flew back. Short trip, but totally worth it :)

The past few weeks at Hart have been very busy. We started our After-School Club, Hart Heroes, last week (which is my initiative I am in charge of). This club consists of social justice learning, service, and teaching the students a greater awareness to issues that they do not necessarily get in school. We had 12 show up and it worked fairly well considering our circumstances. My team leader and Program Manager were very pleased with our team. We need to work on our communication with parents and guardians to get the students to stay until 6 when it is supposed to be over because it is very important the our students get their service hours so they can pass the units that we have. This first unit is called BTA (Basic Training Academy), which is like City Year for middle schoolers as we put them through training just like we went through teaching them mostly about CY culture. Our culture consists of power tools: hands up (get quite and attention), NOSTUESTO (no on speaks twice until everyone speaks once), strong circle (our way of communicating to each other everyday in the morning and evening in a circle - no one out, no one in; and allows us to see and hear each other), PT (physical training), etc. We have a lot, but they all serve a very important purpose and help us to be productive and effective.

We also started our behavior lunch clubs, which is called 50 Acts of Leadership. We pick students that have behavioral issues in class and at school (about 8 in our classes) and split them into 2 groups. We meet with each group 2x a week and talk about leadership and work on building positive attitudes towards being a leader to peers. It is often students that are bored in class or so far behind that misbehave because they are embarrassed. These students get most of the class attention and are natural leaders in class because everyone finds them funny or entertaining. We have only had one day with each group due to crazy scheduling lately, but my students shocked me and really liked eating lunch with me, Ms. Sam :)

This past Friday we had a service day at Hart where we painted lots of murals all over the green walls inside. I was in charge of the cafeteria murals. Our service initiative, Meaza, did a phenomenal job planning and designing numerous murals. We had about 30 corps members come to our school, including both my roommates, and it was so cool to show off our school to our friends. The teachers had a professional development day and they were walking by during our painting loving the change we were making. I can't wait to see their faces tomorrow at school :) Below is a picture of my roommate, Izzy, and good friend, Adeola (sounds like "a-day-older").



Below is the mural on the 7th grade floor. Kai, a teammate, is closest to the camera.



Yesterday I went to a rally on the mall with John Stewart to restore the sanity, which was actually insane. There were 250,000 people on the mall and it was just madness. The metros were busting at the seams and I could not even see the stage or megatrons, but got to listen and it was pretty cool. It took forever to get home and was exhausting, but a really cool experience!



I ended up not getting the bib to run the Marine Corps Marathon, which was very disappointing, but I got to go a CY Halloween party...lots of fun! Lastly, today Izzy and went and bought fish, which we are very excited about. Mine is named Sawyer :) I'll let you know how he is doing!

Check out this link: http://www.btngivebig.com
It's a video of my teammate Meaza for the big 10 network and you will get to see a day in the life of a CY member at my school! Look for a few shots of me too!

O yea I got PT crew as well! So I get to lead PT at unity rallies!

Alright I'm off to finish laundry, pack my lunch for tomorrow, and get to bed to start of the week....I'll write again soon.

Miss you all!