5 posts tagged “kids”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Uganda, there is a war. It's a silent war, from what the international media seems to be saying.

In Uganda there are children being taken, and then enlisted into a rebel army known as the L.R.A. Children that attempt to escape, that cry, are murdered in front of other children to insight fear. These children are less likely to flea.

Many people have never heard about a war in Uganda, let alone children being stolen in the night. Many people couldn't tell you exactly where Iraq is on a map.

I have never been much good at anything in my life, beyond making a fool of myself, and causing mass amounts of drama and/or hilarity. That is, until I started working with kids. Due to my stunted emotional age, I relate well to children. We have the same mental capacity, I suppose. Working with kids has given my life a purpose that I never recognized before, given me a new level of self esteem. It breathes the life into me that birth never did.

I feel alive when surrounded by 70 children screaming. Of course these are American children, and even at their lowest points in our society, do not live like they do in Northern Uganda.

I'm going to start saving this year, so that I can participate in this program. I don't know whether or not I'll be able to go, but eventually I hope I'll be able to participate. Who knows, they don't take many interns.

We'll see, we'll see.

IN THE FACE!

So, today I started training with my new position at the Oshkosh YMCA. I was told that my position would be similar to the position I held in the Madison YMCA, with just a different name. So, I go to training at 9:00am CST and go about training, and junk. I notice that on our schedule "site coordinators" have their own special training, and that's when I begin to realize what they've done to me.

I am a supervisor.

I have never supervised anything more than a group project, and other people putting together entertainment centres. This is going to be so rough, today was just so hectic that I only learned two of the roughly seventy children in this program. I supervise three other people who have been working in this program longer than I have, even at my other job.

Don't get me wrong, I know I can do it, but it was just being blindsided by the job-mobile. For serious.

I mean, wouldn't you just tell someone that?

Camp has started, and it's in full swing.

There is a ton of stuff going on, and my brain can hardly process it all. To begin, I found somewhere to live for the summer, in another town. Her name is Rachel, and she's a lesbian police officer. She's super nice, but I can tell already we're going to have a few personality clashes. I'll probably just stay in my room for the most part. She's cool, but it's going to be weird. There's another woman living there named Ruth, she gets a bigger room, but she's not paying rent. I'm not sure why, but I only need to sleep there.

Annnnyway.

So yeah, camp. I ended up coming up with a camp name, which I can't believe I couldn't think of before. It was so easy. I had pretty much given up, because the things I like most (comic books, toys, and video games) don't necessarily make the best camp names. It took me thinking about the music I love, and there were a ton that I could think of. A lot I decided against. Then it honestly just took me wandering around the house singing to myself to think of it. I'm a spaz, for sure.

"Everybody's got a little light under the sun"

At that point, I was just like "duhhhhhh." If any song in the world had defined who I was as a person, I think that "Flashlight" does, strangely enough. It's weird in a sense that when I talk to people, they associate me with one kind of music, and I've never just listened to any kind of music. Yet, if I had to listen to any one kind of music forever, I suppose Funk and Soul wouldn't be bad.

Flashlight defines me as a person, I think. I wanna be that light in the dark, batteries ready. I also  haven't found a time in my life where I didn't want to dance, want to express myself like a fool. I never minded when people laughed at me, I laugh at myself a lot.

Anyway, camp has been going well, I'm back with my kids again, and I'm so happy. There have been a few problems with the same old kids, but I'm willing to forget them just because I love them, and want a great summer. I've got my best buddy Ryan back, and he's still the same. I wish that other people would recognize that just because he has Asperger's, it doesn't mean that he's not capable of being a normal person. If it takes you just sitting with him, and listening to him talk about God knows what for hours, that's what it takes. You don't have to listen to him intently, you just have to listen.

My heart gets bigger and bigger everyday, and I don't know if it can handle all of this love.

I am there for those kids, today, tomorrow, yesterday, forever. I am who I want to be, and I'm only going to get better, because they only get better. They may hate singing camp songs, and playing group games, but I know they still love being together, and having people to be there for them.

The one kid who fights me the most is still the kid who came to me when he was hurt, and he only needed a hug, and someone to put a band aid on it.

The world is alright right now, I'm not making guarantees, but so far so good.

If I ever end up like some of the parents of the kids I work with, I'm going to sterilize myself with a rusted nail. I don't ever want to do the bizarre things they inflict on their children based on their own insecurities and neuroses. I understand if you think your child is being treated unfairly, but seriously, we're not targeting him, and it doesn't matter if the other child gets in trouble at school all of the time, because they both did the same thing.

The one thing that really bugs me is that the bitch doesn't even try to pretend that she knows my name. She was all like "Yeah, I don't know what her name is, and I don't care, but I talked to her earlier, and I want to talk to her now." Elly was like, "Erin??" and hag was like "Yeah, whatever"

That really bugs me. I work with your child every single day. Shouldn't you be in the least concerned with who I am, and the involvement that I have in your life, even if you don't see me everyday? I don't expect you to know my social, or even what I look like when you leave, but I spend over 4 hours a day with your child.

PAY ATTENTION.

cunt.

I work in an afterschool program with elementary school kids. I have to say it's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. Even when I'm exhausted and pissed off, it's still okay with them. They accept me for who I am, and they don't need me to be anything else, they just need me to be there. So, yeah. At the beginning of this month I was transferred from one school to another, based around the relationship between another coworker and I, we didn't get along, at all. So, now I'm at a new school. It was a rough adjustment for me, and a lot of the kids, but it was just something that had to be done. Even now, even though I like the kids I work with now, I really really miss my old kids. I saw them this last week, and it was almost too much. It was really hard.
I don't know.
I have a bunch of pictures of them, I always forget to post them there, so I thought I would right now. Mostly for me, I guess.