Hola mis amigos,
This week was probably the most exciting week yet in P4SC and it wasn’t just because we didn’t stay inside a classroom. So this week we started off by driving into Philly for two different reasons. The first was to meet with Tony Medwid of Bethesda Project and the second was for the initial meet and greet a few blocks over at YES.
To start things off Tony’s presentation was fantastic. I was a bit confused when he started off the discussion with some educational psychology but that started the session on a great note and I will probably use educational psychology in the future (if I can learn some more). Other than that Tony told his personal stories of how he came to be at Bethesda and some of his past experience. Of his stories, there were two key messages that stuck with me for the rest of the day. The first was a quote he told us. The quote was, “Happiness isn’t getting what you want; it’s wanting what you’ve got.” When I heard the quote I was taken aback because of how I could relate to it so much. Right now I’m at a really positive part of my life in contrary to where I’ve been and not currently, I wouldn’t want my life any other way. The second was an idea he embedded in us and the idea was simple: once you know the name of somebody who is homeless, you will never look at a homeless person again the same way. You won’t pretend they’re invisible or turn away because you will most likely immediately think of the homeless person you know. I think this idea will probably stick with me for the rest of my life and I will always hopefully never put up the invisible shield again.
The second part of our day was a meet and greet at YES with some of the program members. We all congregated over pizza and introduced ourselves. I thought it was funny how Troy was boasting the upper hand because he had met all of us before. After the meet and greet we just briefly played around with the cameras and taught some of the gang the basics. Honestly, I was surprised at how receptive they were to learning stuff on the first day. Of course there were some you could tell weren’t interested but seeing how one girl clearly wasn’t interested in the beginning to then when she was working with Lillian was amazing. But also we saw how real the program could be with people not continuing as one girl walked out halfway through the session to head to a new foster home. My personal favorite part of the meet and greet was briefly talking with a boy before we left. We connected over our writing experiences and I told him how I work on the paper at school and he works on his school paper and we hit it off pretty quickly. I would preferably love to work with him and his photography and if allowed help him expand his writing skills too perhaps in a photojournalism sense.
After that we drove back to school and after a lot of discussion in the car I was ready for bed by the time I got back to campus. Sadly I had to drive 30 minutes home and do homework so when I got home I brewed a pot of coffee.
I’m looking forward to this semester after this week and I’m hoping it will be a great program. Although after this week, I’m having no doubts it will be.
Until Next Time,
- Dan