Anonymous Boston

I always feel like if I can make it through Thursday, I've survived the week.  Fridays we go to headquarters for trainings. Tomorrow, we're doing service in the afternoon, but even then I'll be at HQ for my project, so I feel like I have survived the week if I can make it to Thursday.

Today was a normal day.  I felt bad because I guess the room was somewhat of a mess when Ms. Moulton came back today. It wasn't quite as messy when I left, but I should have gone back when we were all done just to pick up after everyone. They definitely didn't clean up from when I left them with the last teacher and the specialist Ms. Whitty who was with them in the morning when I was there just left everything she was using on the back table.  There was stuff that they were using with me that wasn't put away as neatly as usual though and I felt bad because I should have come back to regroup. You live and you learn I guess, but I did feel bad.

The afternoon was pretty eventful.  Sam, Arthur and I are running our second round of an Ultimate Frisbee enrichment.  This round, we don't have the most competitive/high energy kids, but most of them are pretty athletic.  There is one kid, Jake* who is not athletic at all, pretty slow, and doesn't have a competitive bone in his body.  He was picked on last year a lot as well.  All of this made us question how he ended up in Ultimate Frisbee since the students get to rank what enrichment they want to be in and it seemed like Ultimate would be far down on his list.  Anyways, he had a rough time in Ultimate on Tuesday because he felt like no one wanted him on their team. I pulled him aside today while Sam gave the rest of the group a talk about sportsmanship and I talked to Jake about how good at defense he was and stuff. Then today, the game was tied and Jake was in the endzone.  Andy*, who's probably the best out of the group, but struggles with sportsmanship, threw the frisbee to Jake and Jake caught the winning point! It was so exciting! I called his mom later to tell her because I knew she would be excited for him. She called on Tuesday because he was so upset, so I hope this made things a little bit better.

Second big event of the afternoon- Meeting with the sixth grade teachers, the specialist Talia, my new Course Coaching student Jeremiah*  and his tutor to talk about his grades. He just joined my group Monday and is a mess. He has a ton of work that he's missed, was failing multiple classes and is just overall not with it.  They are worried he's spiraling downhill so they wanted to meet with him and all together to get on the same page. Plus, since he has so many people he works with, it's easy to just say "Oh I'll do it with Ms. Haim (the specialist)..." and then never do it.   So after a long meeting with us, I think we're on the right track. A new grading period has starting and it's a fresh start to get on the right track. I think by the end of the  year, we can get honor roll.  It'll take a lot, but it's definitely possible. The kid is smart, he's just kind of a mess.

Last, after service today, Pat and I went to meet Erica to go to this exhibit called Anonymous Boston.  I don't really know how to accurately explain it, so here's a quote from the website.  "The exhibit is a response to the unaccountable and often intrusive media coverage made even worse by callous comments left online by “anonymous” readers and bloggers. Whenever we lose a child’s life to senseless violence, the family’s’ pain is exacerbated by sometimes inaccurate and insensitive media coverage. This is further amplified by anonymous comments that relentlessly attack and hurt grieving families with their comments. 16 families have come together to make their voices heard and resist the normalization of violence in our communities." In short, the exhibit juxtaposes photographs and stories of children, teens, and young adults lost to street violence with anonymous comments left online on news articles and blogs. There is also an incredible mural, some installation art, and a "tree of life" statue created by the victims' families as art therapy where you can leave messages of love and encouragement. It was so moving and left me speechless, but definitely one of the cooler things I've done in Boston. It also made me appreciate living in the city and having the opportunity to do stuff like this. I think it was incredibly moving and just what I needed to reinforce why I am serving.  I wish more people had the opportunity to see this exhibit because it definitely puts things in perspective. 


Tomorrow is Friday and I couldn't be more excited.  I can't wait for a weekend of friends, food and packing to go home.  Too great. 


Here's a video of a senior music major at JMU who did this composition to commemorate all of those that have passed away this semester. It's incredible. #weareJMUstrong