I had been absent from Jr/Sr Scholars for a little over a month and just as you're told at the very first orientation you ever go to. They will notice. Last week, about 3 or 4 students asked me where I had been. Yesterday a few more with one saying that it had been, "like six years since I last saw you." Then another one came over and hugged me saying that I was his most favorite teacher ever. I'm going to miss them so much. It hurts that I won't be here to see them graduate in a few months. I love these kids (teenagers really) in ways that I don't understand. At the end of the summer of 2006 I laid down on the couch and started to think about some of them and began to cry. Not sob but just tears started coming down my face because I kept thinking about some of the stories that they had told me. Then I started praying to God, asking him to take care of them, all of them, to take everything away from me, just as long as these youth ended up happy and realizing their dreams. It happened again last night, minus the tears. I wasn't able to sleep. Woke up at 5 and couldn't go back to bed. So I just started praying about them again. It made me think that maybe someone was going through something at the moment and needed a prayer.
I wish I could bring them all down with me to Guatemala or take them anywhere around the world really. There has to be some airline that would do that for free. Someone with a kind heart? I need connections.
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Words found on this blog reflect my personal thoughts and experiences. They do not reflect the views of the Peace Corps or the United States government.
About Me
- amnightingale
- Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala; 2008-2010; Youth Promoter
You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.
Every day, God gives us the sun--and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist--that today is the same day as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover the magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting the front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists--a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.
Joy is sometimes a blessing, but is often a conquest. Our magic moments helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments---but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.
Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back--and at some point everyone looks back--she will hear her heart saying, "what have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life."
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept-Coelho
Every day, God gives us the sun--and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist--that today is the same day as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover the magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting the front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists--a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.
Joy is sometimes a blessing, but is often a conquest. Our magic moments helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments---but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.
Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back--and at some point everyone looks back--she will hear her heart saying, "what have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life."
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept-Coelho
1 comment:
Well, reading this made me realize that you guys arent just tutors...or just random people. Reading this Blog made me think about how attached you guys really get. Praying is the most powerful thing that anyone could ever ask for or do. I used to think that it was pointless. I used to think i was wasting my breath and that God wouldn't hear me. As for the last part.... I wish you could have taken me with you too! My Friend Shanna has connections..Her mom GETS FREE FLIGHTZ..and was going to fly me to N.Y last Thanksgiving..but my mom wouldnt let me... more like my dad. but I got to spend it with U and Ur family. Your family is awesome..wanna trade?!
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