That was the response I got from my uncle after I told him about my latest apartment fiasco: my electricity being cut off yesterday. Apparently, crazy unexpected things are a clear sign of becoming an adult and not having electricity until Monday (hopefully) apparently is one of those things. Due to all the craziness that surrounded yesterday in order for me to get my electricity back up for Monday, I’ll just say there was crying, freaking out and some praying and calling the girlfriend for crash clean-up. Amazingly though, I was able to calm down and got great support from family, friends, and a little help from God, I’d say.
- I feel slightly lame as of right now because, though I have a lot to report, I don’t feel overwhelmingly compelled to share it all in my Brent-ish detail. Therefore, I’ll provide a quick bullet-point that updates things from my last post on.
1. Found a roommate, who is a fellow first-year Fellow and a great guy all-around, even though he’s from Boston.
2. Through the help of my former roommate and her former roommate and good friend, Con-Ed is (hopefully) pulling their best God-impression on me by turning the lights back on for Monday.
3. I met my co-teacher on Thursday at a coffee shop right after my 5-day visit to see Kira. I thought we’d talk for an hour and be on our separate ways. Instead, she and I talked for over two and a half hours on pretty much everything under the sun. Even when I rambled on and on about things, she seemed to be entirely respectful. If there was ever a way to start off on the right foot in this CTT-forced-marriage, I believe we took the best step.
4. I’m quite the mix of excitement and nerves for Monday. Monday’s the first day teachers can report to my school and I will be there with my co-teacher as we set up the classroom, rules and the like. She’s also helping to introduce me to everyone around the building, which is a huge help. Nerves for the usual: not doing what the heck I’m doing every day until June 2010. Excitement also for the usual: having an incredible opportunity while being paired up with seemingly a great co-teacher and wondering who the heck I will be teaching.
In most demographics, I am the embodiment of the inexperienced, young, idealist, bright, world-changer some people dislike, or in certain schools, attack/abuse due to those characteristics. On September 9th, I will be a 21-year-old Puerto Rican male, entering a classroom with a strong veteran teacher. I will have been less than four months removed from my undergraduate studies at Fordham University. I will be coming in inundated with countless stories of past Fellows that I know and have met as well as service trip experiences working with all kinds of people through Fordham-sponsored organizations like Global Outreach. Lastly, I will be coming in with a complete lack of world experience compared to my colleagues, but with a 7-week intense boot-camp-like experience through the NYC Teaching Fellows to help me. We’ll see if the training helped in the next few months.
The only thing I can do is to pour myself into the job, while making sure I keep my head up, “hang in there”, and make time to relax, which I have set up by having a XBox 360 and a Wii, joining a Zogsports Fall 2009 Sunday kickball league, planning to visit my friends at Fordham and seeing friends who are here, visiting my family as much as I responsibly can, and of course, visiting and seeing my girlfriend Kira. Though I know that my race and gender are abnormalities in a career dominated by white women, being a possible male role model with kids who share the same skin color (and maybe, some of the same stories) as me won’t mean a damn thing if I don’t plan well, have a strong working relationship with my colleagues, and manage our classroom well together.
The journey begins Monday. Oh. boy.
I end this post with a story and a thank you to one of my closest friends, Andrea. Two weeks ago, I participated as a station leader for my church’s Vacation Bible School (VBS). Working on VBS gives me the chance to see some of my closest friends that I grew up in the church with. Andrea is one of them, who I have practically known for 15 years. I was talking to her about my roommate situation on Wednesday during the VBS week. Andrea referred to a Scripture verse in Psalms, which ended up showing its colors through amazing ways:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. – Psalms 81:10
The verses continue stating what happened to the Israelites when they didn’t open wide their mouths, allowing the Lord to fill it, but I digress. She told me to pray on it and to “open my mouth wide”, keeping all my options open. I told her that I’ve been doing that and she told me that God will deliver.
Boy did he ever.
After almost giving up on roommates in general, I randomly looked at Craigslist again. Long story short, I found the person who is now my roommate, a Fellow who was part of my elementary special education group with me. It seemed all this month that when I let more people know about my situation or when I kept pushing all my options open, God was able to deliver and I survive the next test.
Thank you Andrea, and yes, I must visit you at Roberts this year!
I’ll leave you with the Sunday VBS presentation. In experimenting with her brush with new technology, my mom recorded this video on her first brand-new digital camera from the back of the church, capturing the two songs that I helped lead and the talking I did in between. It may be shaky because it was my mom who recorded it, but I hope you enjoy!
Blessings.
Rough on the Diamond 