I am two weeks into City Year Milwaukee and feel like I've traveled miles, physically and emotionally. So, I have no idea where to start. Bear with me while I attempt to explain the basics and of course, more will follow.
My house: it's comfortable. Nicer than my house in Madison, with painted walls but smaller bedrooms. Mine is blue, happily reminiscent of my bedroom in Fond du Lac. I have three roommates: Andrew, from Kentucky, who is three years through college and using this year to gain some life direction; Heather, who just graduated from Marquette with a degree in English; and Ryan, Heather's boyfriend who also just graduated from Marquette and the only one in the house who is not doing City Year. Ryan and Heather have a cat named Dr. John--a boy cat yet he has a purple, rhinestone studded color...Dr. John and I aren't really friends yet.
My neighborhood: it's excellent. On the East Side of Milwaukee, I am within walking distance to Whole Foods (though I don't go there often...it's been called Whole Paycheck by City Year people), numerous bars, a movie theater, hair salons, lots of restaurants, and best of all, Lake Michigan and the lakefront parks, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Summerfest grounds.
My job: surprising is the first word that comes to mind. First of all, City Year tries very hard to be a very diverse group. We have people of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, religions, and social classes and because of this City Year (CY from here on out) has created its own "culture" so one group won't be more represented than another. This culture has simultaneously reminded me of Stalin's Red Army; the 1960's Civil Rights Movement; and my 8th grade Student Council experiences...weird combinations which take a while to get used to. The first week of training was a struggle for me to balance my individuality with the necessity to conform to this culture and the second week was an emotional preview of how next ten months will go: how I will cooperate and lead within a diverse large group and diverse small group; how I will be constantly tired and have fewer financial resources than ever before; and how I will probably make some of the best friends of my life. I'm really, really excited.
Our corps is made up of 60 Corps Members (CMs) and 10 Senior Corps Members (SCMs) who have either done a City Year (CY) before or have had similar experience to a CY. (Get ready for a deluge of appreviations.) We are serving on six teams of seven to ten corps members and one SCM at six schools in the Milwaukee Public School District: one high school, working with just freshman, and five schools where we will work with 5th to 8th graders. We will show up at school before the students in order to greet them in the morning, be at school all day with the students, then run after-school programs for the students. This means a few things: we will have very long work days (with transportation time, we're looking at a potential 12 to 13 hour day) but also that we will have time to form strong bonds with the students we serve.
This total immersion into the schools and into the Corps reminds me a lot of my study abroad experience. I'm really grateful I have that to look to when handling my emotions or when I get too microscopic about how I imagine the year (or the month, or hell, even the week) turning out.
I don't want to overwhelm anyone with too much more information, so I'll finish with this. I'm going to the beach soon with a large group of new friends (who I feel surprisingly, wonderfully close to already) and tomorrow we get down to business, our first day at school. More
on my day at Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts Elementary School soon. :-)
