Blessings Blog

Today I'm thankful to get back into writing mode! Last night's Mustard Seed was exactly what I needed to fill me up and refresh me so I could do some good, hearty, focused work today.

I'm thankful for friends with whom I am completely comfortable, and I'm thankful for getting to know and being challenged by new friends about faith and life experiences. 

I'm thankful for the realization that I function better with structure in my days, which I have known conceptually for a long time... but as I am getting some real-world experience and flexibility at this point to fill my days with both paid work and fulfilling activities (and do God's work all the time, of course, which in my life means trying to be a vessel for God's love all the time and in every context!), I have realized (again), just how important a little structure is to the value of my human capital (apologies to non-social science majors on that one...).

And I'm thankful to have the opportunity, time, and flexibility to start volunteering with TORCH today. TORCH stands for Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes, and this program has done so much to try to close the achievement gap in Northfield schools and work with low-income and minority students to get them into and prepared for college (more here!). I know that it is not my calling to be a classroom teacher, but I do enjoy working one-on-one with students and also gaining a better understanding of our education system. While the concept of problem-free public education is a pipe dream, equal access to education, I believe (and have researched, please feel free to ask me about my senior thesis sometime - basically governments should invest in solid healthcare and education systems for their populations), is a crucial component to the sustainable development of any country, including our own. The education system must be able to tap into the human potential and unique talents of every person, and the circumstances in which you were born or grew up may affect how likely you are to get stuck or how likely you are to have the chance to go to college, but if you have the skills and drive to do college, you should darn well get the chance to be prepared and encouraged along the way.

For those reasons, I am thankful to see TORCH at work these next few months as a case study of sorts, and on a personal level, I look forward to connecting with, encouraging, and learning from these high schoolers who face obstacles to furthering their education that I was fortunate to have never had to face.