And so it begins...

Welcome to The Sunny Side! This storytelling blog has been in the making for quite some time, and I'm so glad my idea has finally become a reality. Thanks for being patient with me as I've been adjusting to my new post-grad life in Seattle. I finally feel ready to take the step into the blogging world, so here we go! My vision for this blog is three-fold: First, to tell everyday positive stories from my life after college graduation. Second, to document my thoughts, experiences, challenges, and realizations during my one-year Mennonite Voluntary Service term here in Seattle. And finally, to keep in touch with my incredible support network in Kansas, Iowa, California, South Carolina, Minnesota, and the many other states my friends and loved-ones call home. I plan to update this blog every Sunday, so stay tuned!  

My term in Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) is off to a whirlwind of a start! I think I envisioned having ample free time every evening/weekend to just relax and unwind from the work day/week, but so far things have been such a blur! And while it's stressful and exhausting, I'm loving it! There are seven of us living in the house--5 men and 2 women, including me. The house is absolutely huge! It's three stories plus a basement, and we all have our own bedrooms, which is very nice. The house is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, which honestly feels a lot like the Grinnell campus, only more hipster and with fewer people running around stressed. Here's a picture of the front of our house:

The other female housemate, Candace, and I have the third floor all to ourselves, which is wonderful. We even have our own small sitting room on the third floor, and I'm sitting in a comfy old rocking chair in that room this very moment. The house is definitely old and could use some serious repairs, but it is very livable, and we are all doing our best to make small repairs when possible. We live right next to a Montessori preschool and daycare, and I love waking up to the sounds of children laughing in the backyard of the preschool each morning.

I'm really enjoying getting to know my housemates. In some ways we're all very similar--we have all previously attended Mennonite churches, we're all in our early 20s, and we've all recently graduated from college. But in other ways we're very different. An example: Only myself and one other housemate did not attend religious affiliated colleges, so it's been interesting to hear how different our college experiences were from those of everyone else in the house. I feel like I have a lot of History of Religion catch-up to do! :). Many of us also came to MVS for different reasons, and we all have very diverse interests and skills, so it makes for quite the eclectic and dynamic group! Fortunately, we have some tremendous cooks, handypersons, peacemakers, musicians, adventure-seekers, and penny-pinchers. In other words, we have the bases covered!

My placement is very different from those of my housemates. I am the only one working with youth, which is surprising. But everyone seems to really enjoy their placements, which are: Activities Director at a home for formerly homeless retired men (2 people have this placement), Home Delivery Coordinator at a food bank, Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator at a food bank food distributor, Assistant Manager at Ten Thousand Villages, a Paralegal at a pro-bono law firm, and then me—Education Success Coordinator at a non-profit that works with foster youth. I've decided not to use the real name of my organization on my blog, just to emphasize that my blog is in no way sanctioned or sponsored by them. I haven't come up with a pseudonym yet for my organization, but perhaps I will. 

My job position has changed a bit since I’ve started working, and I’ve been so grateful that the organization has adapted my position to fit my skills and interests. I’m now splitting my time between working in the schools (co-leading College and Career Planning group meetings with Middle School foster youth) and working in the Learning Center located at our office (tutoring and providing homework help to elementary-high school aged foster youth in math, English, history, science, and foreign language). I feel like I’m constantly learning every day at my job. There are so many different factors that come in to play when you work with foster youth, and I had just never realized how complicated the most basic things would be. For example, the seemingly simple act of getting a permission form signed can take months because students’ caregivers, schools, and addresses are constantly changing. And it’s nearly impossible for our organization to keep an up-to-date database of the youth it serves because the youth are constantly moving, their cases with the state are being open, closed, and re-opened, and sometimes students even drop out of the school system and never re-enroll. Fortunately, we have a team of 30+ Educational Advocates who travel all over the state and advocate on behalf of foster youth in the school setting, doing everything from ensuring that Special Ed testing occurs to convincing schools to lessen Suspension times because foster youth have extenuating circumstances and already miss triple the amount of school days than their peers.

Despite all the challenges they face, though, many of the foster youth I work with are doing extremely well both socially and academically. One young woman I work with in the Learning Center even came in on a Friday afternoon when the tutoring center is usually closed, and asked the receptionist to call back to my desk to see if I could help her with her Algebra homework before she went to the Freshman Dance that night. The next week she earned an A on her math quiz and rushed back to my cubicle, grinning ear-to-ear, to thank me for all the extra help. Moments like these constantly re-affirm my commitment to working with youth, supporting non-profits, and serving in MVS.

More to come next week. Thanks for reading! 

Here's to celebrating life's sunny moments,