end of the year bonding.

I feel like the past few days have been a lot of just hanging out, and that's perfectly fine with me. Saturday, we had a team cookout at Pat's house.  Erica, Angela, Pat, Megan, and Sam, as well as Erica's room mate Julie who works for City Year, all came and we ended up hanging out for a good five or six hours.  We just sat outside reflecting on the year and all that has happened. Even though it had a more serious tone, it was meaningful.  We were able to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly without getting upset with each other or the situation. We talked about when Nick, Arthur and Rachel left.  We talked about our frustrations with City Year, but also some of the good times. It was definitely worthwhile.

Sunday, I went to one of my student's ballet recitals and then hung out at the mall  with Pat for a while.  We have this big dinner tomorrow (Tuesday) night where we all have to dress up.  He was looking for an outfit and I was just there for the input. We didn't find anything, but it was fun and better than just hanging out at my house all day.

Today was a ton of fun as well.  We had some off boarding training in the morning and then lots and lots of team time. When we got to team time, there were superlatives hanging on the wall, along with our names.  There was a serious category of superlatives, as well as a more funny category.  We went around and discussed what each person should get.  When we were discussing a person, that person could not talk.  Each person got one funny superlative and one serious one.  I ended up with "most likely to plan our reunions" and "most likely to win teacher of the year award," both of which I loved!  Everyone's superlatives matched them perfectly.

When we finished superlatives, the tone became more serious.  Erica talked about how when she was a senior in high school, her English teacher had them write letters to themselves four years later.  They received the letters four years later and were completely different people.  We wrote letters to ourselves about what we learned this year, what our goals were, who is important to us, and anything we felt impacted our year.  Erica took them and put our superlatives in the envelope.  She is going to mail them to us in four years.  I can't wait to receive the letter! Let's hope she remembers.

After the letter writing, we went back to our silly tone (this is when the meeting switched from Erica to Danielle's leadership). Danielle spoke about how there were different characteristics that each of us had brought to the team and that we had developed over the year.  We then proceeded to a Yankee Swap type game.  We each chose a number out of a basket.  I was number seven, which if you've played Yankee Swap is a good thing. We started at number one (Ethan) and he chose a characteristic that Danielle had listed that we brought to the team.  He chose the one he felt embodied him the most. Danielle had gotten a gift that matched that characteristic.  Ethan chose pride, so he got a Boston Bruins tervis tumbler and a Red Sox magnet.  That didn't last long though because Margaret, the Boston born and bred member of our team was next and stole it from him.  I ended up choosing forward-thinking and got a book about career choices. Much needed.

After all of this team bonding, it makes me so sad to say goodbye to these wonderful eight. I am so proud to have served alongside each of them. Although we all have our strengths and weaknesses, I think we have embodied what a team means. I love them with all my heart and couldn't have made it through it all without them.

Oh and we had a photoshoot to follow our team time.  Meet my team.....