Friday, June 9, 2017

The Year of 59(10)

When I was a very little girl I would often baby sit for people my family knew. In my mind that was a job. I'd  baby sat for couples at the church we attended a lot. One couple had four children and they would have me come early in the morning and I would be with the children until late at night. I hated it at times but loved being with the children. Although this wasn't a full time job I did it enough to feel as if it was. If it wasn't someone from church it was family friends children. Now that I look back at my life I have be blessed with a job.

At a place in my life right now that I'm sort of tired of working. This isn't good because I'm not rich so that means I have to work.  I'm at a place now in my life where I want to do something different in my life I just can't find what that different would be. I've been blessed to have this positon working in a school as a Site-Coordinator for an after school program. I loved what I was able to do as a Site-Coordinator at ACE Academy when I really think about it Ihaving this job was like the dream job for me. I know I'd dreamed of working in a school running a program and having people come in and work with the students with fun and interactive learning. Even as a young girl I've always thought that I probably could learn more if I was more involved with the learning instead of just reading things all the time and just writing the answers on a sheet of paper. 

I got that opportunity to bring people in with skills and knowledge on subjects that the students would have the opportunity to have in a fun and interactive way. We had music, this class was more making cd's and rapping. I'm wasn't crazy about that because our students use lots of  profanity and inapprioate lyrics and we're constanly having them change the lyrics and they were never happy with that. The teacher would often try having a theme but the students only wanted to rap about money, girls or guns. I had to realized that this is what they were used to and we just had to stay on top of them.

The class that I had was so happy to bring to the school through the YMCA was keyboarding. Why Keyboarding? I've always wanted to play the keyboard and although I eventually took lesson as an adult maybe if I would have the opportunity to learn the keyboard earlier in life then I would be playing the piano now. I wanted the students to have some knowledge of the keyboard. The class started off as a drum class but because the room was sound proof the students would have headaches after the class. We were so fortuanate that the teacher that teaching drumming could also play the keyboard. When we had our Black History program one of the students played the Black National Anthem for us. If you could see my heart it was beaming with joy.

Two of the biggest joys came with me being able to write. I don't consider myself a writer because of my grammer. I'm sure you're finding lots of mistakes as you read my blogs. I know that there are young people that like to write and wanted to give them the opportunity to write. I got blessed with a young man that came and he was able to work with the students to make our first newsletter. It looked just like a newspaper. The students were very happy and I was over joyed. The young man that had the program for the newletter quit and I didn't have anyone to take his place. That meant that I had to try it myself. I found a newsletter format on the microsoft and made our first newsletter. Not all the boys jumped in on it but those that submitted articles had some very good stories, interveiws and poems to add to the newsletter. Doing the newsletter gave me the opportunity to develop my skills to write more. I was loving every minute I was putting time into writing the newsletter.

I also had the opportunity to work witht the students putting together the Black History program. It was so much fun coming up with skits with the students. I was pretty surprised with my writing coming up with skits. Putting it together was so much fun. I was surprised at how much fun I was having working with the students with lines, directing and writing. I saw myself as the woman I think I had dreamed of but I wasn't really sure but it was just amazing how my heart would beat faster everytime I would write or when I was working with the students on the parts in the show. I was loving putting the show together all my enegries were moving so fast and I was so high. Maybe I missed my calling I thought several times while working on the paper and the show. I would think I really should be a writer or an actress. I was so appreciative of the 21st Century Afterschool program that really gave me the opportunity to do such wonderful and fun things with the students.

We've learned that the grant for the afterschool program wasn't granted to our school this year. Heartbroken for sure yet I think I'm ready to move on. The thoughts of ending just keep moving through my mind. I'm beginning to think about all the jobs I've had over the years. Some I was so heart broken about that the tears would just over take me. This time I have no tears because I'll still be with the company but I will move on to another facility. I don't want to work in a youth detention center any more because I don't want to work with students with such bad attitudes. Yet, I don't see myself doing anything else. I'm sure many of midage people like myself find themselves in the same dilemma in their lives trying to picture themselves doing something else wotth while in their lives. I this point I feel like screaming but that won't make things better at all. Back to this job. I was blessed it was a good experience. I have Cathy to thank for that she and DeBorah recommeneded that I take the position nine years ago when they were planning on letting the other young lady go. I felt so bad about that I meet the young lady once and she was so nice, I didn't want to take the position because I had supervised people before and I really didn't like doing that. I really didn't feel I was the right person for the job. They convinced me and here I am today getting ready to move on.


No comments: