1. How did today differ from how I expected it to be?
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. Today was the first day of school! I was excited to power greet (cheer everyone into school in the morning) at one of the high schools! We weren't allowed in our school yet, so we just joined Roosevelt's team for this morning. It was a blast!! There were like 50 of us singing songs and leading cheers for students as they came in. My favorite was simple: Hey! It's you! You're here! That's great, fantastic! The reactions of the students were hilarious. Many were excited and walked down our tunnel with big smiles on their faces, and some were WAY too cool and walked around a different way. And then there were the ones that made my day. They would start with a scowly face. They would walk slowly through the tunnel of cheering City Year corps members. About half way, a smirk would crack on their face. A few more steps, and they'd be smiling. At the end of the line, they were laughing. COME ON, if that doesn't make you happy, you need to check your pulse.
2. After power greeting, we all traveled to the public transit station to get our free bus passes! We had to wait in a long line, but it was worth it, because they are donating these passes to CY for free, and they could be making a ton of money off of us. While we were waiting, one of my teammates and I were standing around, and we were talking about the cheers. One of the cheers is about bananas, and at the end, we "GO BANANAS" and jump around. He had another version where the end is "MASH POTATO." So we decided it would be mandatory to actually do the Mashed Potato dance move at the end. Which led me to realize that while the Mashed Potato looks really easy, I actually cannot do it at all. So we spent the rest of the time in line practicing. And then he taught me the Charleston; bonus dance move!
After we got our passes, we rode the bus down to our school just to get the feel for it, and I actually liked taking the bus! It was a fun adventure with our school team and it made me really excited for tomorrow. But more about that in #5.
3. While we were walking around our neighborhood and power greeting, my shoes started giving me a blister! I was so mad! It seems like a small thing, but I have been wearing these shoes every day for 2 weeks and NOW they give me a blister? Not cool.
4. I grew today when we were asked to write our I Serve statements. These are similar to our Personal Leadership Mission Statement, but more specific to City Year and more concise. I knew that I wanted to include something about how lucky I've been to have the family, friends, and encouragement that I've had my whole life, but I didn't know how to include that in a concise statement. So my school team were all drafting their statements, and I asked for help from Alex and Faith, and with their help, I wrote a statement that I'm actually really proud of! This is how it looks, all official-like:
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. Today was the first day of school! I was excited to power greet (cheer everyone into school in the morning) at one of the high schools! We weren't allowed in our school yet, so we just joined Roosevelt's team for this morning. It was a blast!! There were like 50 of us singing songs and leading cheers for students as they came in. My favorite was simple: Hey! It's you! You're here! That's great, fantastic! The reactions of the students were hilarious. Many were excited and walked down our tunnel with big smiles on their faces, and some were WAY too cool and walked around a different way. And then there were the ones that made my day. They would start with a scowly face. They would walk slowly through the tunnel of cheering City Year corps members. About half way, a smirk would crack on their face. A few more steps, and they'd be smiling. At the end of the line, they were laughing. COME ON, if that doesn't make you happy, you need to check your pulse.
2. After power greeting, we all traveled to the public transit station to get our free bus passes! We had to wait in a long line, but it was worth it, because they are donating these passes to CY for free, and they could be making a ton of money off of us. While we were waiting, one of my teammates and I were standing around, and we were talking about the cheers. One of the cheers is about bananas, and at the end, we "GO BANANAS" and jump around. He had another version where the end is "MASH POTATO." So we decided it would be mandatory to actually do the Mashed Potato dance move at the end. Which led me to realize that while the Mashed Potato looks really easy, I actually cannot do it at all. So we spent the rest of the time in line practicing. And then he taught me the Charleston; bonus dance move!
After we got our passes, we rode the bus down to our school just to get the feel for it, and I actually liked taking the bus! It was a fun adventure with our school team and it made me really excited for tomorrow. But more about that in #5.
3. While we were walking around our neighborhood and power greeting, my shoes started giving me a blister! I was so mad! It seems like a small thing, but I have been wearing these shoes every day for 2 weeks and NOW they give me a blister? Not cool.
4. I grew today when we were asked to write our I Serve statements. These are similar to our Personal Leadership Mission Statement, but more specific to City Year and more concise. I knew that I wanted to include something about how lucky I've been to have the family, friends, and encouragement that I've had my whole life, but I didn't know how to include that in a concise statement. So my school team were all drafting their statements, and I asked for help from Alex and Faith, and with their help, I wrote a statement that I'm actually really proud of! This is how it looks, all official-like:
I serve because the opportunities I have been given should be available to all.
My name is Mae Christiansen, and I proudly serve as a corps member in Rhodes Middle School.
I really like all the statements that City Year has had us make as individuals, because it does give us a chance to really reflect on why we're here. Without that purpose driving us, we won't really provide the best service that we're able to provide. It's activities like this that make me really proud to serve in City Year, because I believe what we're doing really is the best way to attack the dropout crisis and that if we stay true to our purpose, we can make a huge difference.
5. Tomorrow it's OUR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! The district approved City Year at the emergency meeting tonight!!! I'm sooooooooooo excited to see the students and the inside of the school I'll be serving for the next 10 months!!!!!!!!! Maybe I should manage my expectations......NAH, it's gonna be awesome. :)
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