Blessings Blog

Tonight in the midst of the work insanity, I'd like to just share a brief story that I had the opportunity to reflect on for my AmeriCorps monthly progress report.

Since I came into my site in the middle of the year, first volunteering at afterschool Homework Help with the TORCH program, and then landed this Promise Fellow position, I have been playing catch-up in terms of learning students’ names and forming relationships within this community. I have been pleasantly surprised by how many students I have been able to interact with and how many I do know by name at this point. I have been fortunate to work with a number of wonderful students, and I feel it is a great honor when building relationships with students can lead to them feeling comfortable enough to share about their lives with me and see me as a resource they can trust, or perhaps even a big sister figure.

One student had been coming into our office during his study hall for the past couple of weeks to get some things done, and I had talked with him briefly a couple of times to just check in academically, but I was pleasantly surprised, given how quiet and reserved he is, how comfortable he felt talking with me. I ran into him in the weight room at Carleton, when I was all sweaty and gross after teaching a Zumba class, and rather than awkwardly trying to avoid me as some students would rather not see their teachers outside of school, he approached me to talk about prom that had happened just a few days before. He sought my counsel as a young woman because he needed to talk to his date about something and was not sure how to say it, or how to go about it because they hardly have any time to talk during the school day. He told me it is hard for him to open up to people, but he felt like he needed to ask her forgiveness about something because he wanted to be her Superman and make her prom night the most special possible because he so valued their friendship. I was just amazed by how he wanted to open up to me to ask my advice, and it was beautiful to see the heart in this young man, seeking her forgiveness and wanting to make things right.   

His heart just melted mine. I'm so grateful to have run into him and learned more about this young man who said he has regrets about his past, and I'm thankful to have had this opportunity to talk with him about the power of forgiveness. 

I'm thankful life is busy, but busy with good things, and I'm happy for those moments that stand out as clear examples of God's grace can shimmer even when we least expect it, as long as we lay that foundation of living out love all of the time so when we are called to, we are always ready!