For the past (almost) two months I've been working at an after school program in Bastión Popular as the coordinator. It has been the most trying and challenging part of my year and has stretched me to places I never though I would stretch. It sounds bad, and there are days that I come home and just plop down in my seat and say, "did that really happen today?" But overall, I feel like I am winning over and am being won over by the kids who attend the program. Although I'll only have one more month after this, I think we've been able to cement relationships that, of course, will stay with me when I return to the United States.
Also for the past few months I've been continuing on in my process for attending Grad School at BC. I've forgotten how interviews and deadlines work sometimes, but I've managed, especially because I've been able to acquire housing and financial aid for the upcoming year. It's been quite the dichotomy between working on things for grad school and working here, seeing the opportunities that I'm going to have and the opportunities that will fall to the wayside for those who live here just because of their social class or where they were born. It's quite the experience.
What I'm realizing, out of everything here, is that one day can start out a-ok, with not a bother in the world, and then can end up really falling on its face, sometimes leaving me in a sort of daze, questioning my own effectiveness with my position here. The stories I've heard here have been of people who have overcome obstacles almost unbelievable, yet I'm seeing that each day one may have to struggle just to get to the other end of it. This struggle isn't wrong or bad or not the way to live life well, but it is life itself. Everyone struggles, everyone feels suffering and pain, everyone will come home and plop down on a seat and ask themselves, "did that really happend today?"
The more inspring thing, the thing that I really need to remember, is that it's certainly not just me going through this. And if you're reading this, it's not just you going through this, either. We're going through this because we are human, and in this humanity we are united under the love of God. Call it what you will (solidarity, altruism, compassion), but all of these things reflect the love of something greater than ourselves, something that we cannot explain with definition. Perhaps this is what we need to learn about life: that we all are in the same human family, struggling to live in the love of God.
