A-Ha!

1. What were my expectations for the day?
2. What are the high points of the day?
3. What are the low points of the day?
4. What is one experience that caused me to grow today?
5. What am I excited about for tomorrow?

1. After yesterday, I expected today to be full of "A-ha" moments and personal growth. I expected to get better at remembering CY culture pieces and to interact more comfortably with my fellow corps members.

2. Some high points were a dance party on stage where everyone did the Wobble--a very squishy moment but still very fun! Also, we began writing a personal leadership mission statement, a mission statement to incorporate the goals that we will strive for throughout our LIVES. I mean, talk about an A-Ha moment! For me, though, it came pretty easy. Wanna hear my first draft? Thought so.

As a leader, I will strive to make every community 

I touch a more positive place. I will promote a just, open, 

and accepting environment and challenge others 

to join me on the journey to becoming our ideal selves.

What do you think? I would honestly love your feedback. Also, start thinking about your personal mission! If nothing else, it gives you a great reason to pray and start thinking about yourself and your goals. 

Other high points include finding similarities between myself and my fellow corps members and learning more about the extremely diverse experiences we have had that brought us to City Year. We have so many different perspectives and it makes us so much stronger as a group because we still have a common goal that we are all SO passionate about: helping students succeed. That goal will change and it will look different for every single student the ~100 of us help, but it is still the think that we ALL have in common.

I almost forgot! We wrote a letter to ourselves that we're going to open upon graduation from the Corps. I won't tell you everything I wrote in mine, but it began with giant words: YOU DID IT! I betcha can't tell how confident I am that this program is for me. :)

I almost forgot something else (who's surprised?)! We also did crafts today!! Made some tissue paper flowers (Fiesta flowers here, because they are super popular during Fiesta, a 2 week long party in April) and friendship bracelets! I still adhere to my standard of making no friendship bracelet for myself, so we'll wait and see who will receive this beauty. 

3. A low point was that a fellow member was struggling today with wanting to leave City Year and go home. I knew that this year was going to be extremely challenging and that there would be people who chose to quit and couldn't finish for a myriad of reasons, but I was surprised that it was so soon. I won't disrespect them by discussing it any more, but I ask everyone to send positive can-do thoughts to San Antonio this week and all year, because it is certain that there are more people wrestling with the idea that they can't do this for a year. 

4. I think that writing the letter to myself caused me to grow today because I realized just how high the goals are that I set for myself. I always knew that I expected a lot from me, but today when I was writing down some of the things that I hope to accomplish this year, I found myself not even wondering if I should lower my expectations. I started writing, and I just made the decision that since I'm writing them, that's what I will have to do. It's happening because I already wrote it. Bam, I am now a fortune teller. In all seriousness, I feel like I could have written anything in that letter and be confident that I would find a way to make it happen this year. It is an amazing feeling to possess this much power over myself and my future, and I will try my darnedest to help my students feel like I did today as much as possible.

5. I am excited for tomorrow because it is structured slightly differently! I love sitting in meetings and classes all day as much as the next person, but tomorrow we start PT (Physical Training). I'm pretty sure it's not as intense (you know what else is in tents?) as what I saw ROTC guys and gals doing before any human should be awake, but it will still be moving around and it will be fun to look like goofs in our white tee's and khakis exercising! I think goofs would be the perfect word to describe how we look in our before-we-get-our-City-Year-uniform uniform.