My Cardboard Balcony

So, here's the thing: I may have said that I needed to be purposely vague regarding my job. In this situation, however, I have a lot on my mind. This week only consisted of three school days, and it felt like one of the longest weeks of my life. But I want to stick my initial plan, and I don't want to be too specific, so I'm mostly going to talk a bit about a little something called leadership. Don't worried; there's a point. I realize now, as I write this introspection, that I never told the story of one major screw-up I made while working in AmeriCorps from 2012-2013. While a member of the BAYAC/OCASA branch of the organization, I worked as an afters chool program leader, running a literacy program called GirlSMART for twelve second-grade girls who were still struggling to speak, read, and write English. Needless to say, I was not exactly stellar at working with very young students. I've always done better with older kids, especially teenagers, and classro...

Nobel Prizeworthy by Belinda Roddie I made my own book! It has pictures of lobsters.

It was another windy day in the famous Windy City, and all the Cubs were waiting for the "L" train to take them back to their little personal pockets of space and narrow square feet, where their belongings were tucked into corners and kept dry. Meanwhile, I sat beneath a street lamp and listened to a street musicians mutilate a classic on a beat up tenor saxophone. At least he had heart, I guess.