Well I've only been on the job for a few days, a week if you count the intensive AmeriCorps training and already I'm learning that I just don't know as much as I thought I did. I journeyed to Chicago with the belief that I was going into the business of helping people. Which turned out to be completely incorrect. My year devoted to Habitat has almost nothing to do with "helping" others. I will be serving.
Yeah I didn't understand the difference at first either, but it's a significant one. "Helping is something you do for others that are weaker than yourself. AmeriCorps members are serving. It is a partnership between equals." -AmeriCorps Facilitator.
It puts everything into perspective and at the same time makes everything more difficult. I find that sometimes it is easier to offer a helping hand. It takes effort, enthusiasm and passion for what you're doing to constantly serve the needs of others and the community.
Unbalanced and a bit unprepared for the difference I embarked on my first week with Habitat, confident that at least I knew my responsibilities as I had been a coordinator in the past.
Wrong again.
As I sifted through the massive piles of Youth United paperwork I discovered the outlined purpose of the group I was supposed to be guiding. It's core value of advocacy, a term I thought I was well acquainted with, threw me for another loop. In my mind I always pictured advocates as people who fight for their beliefs and spend most of their time making other people aware of the laws and options presented. Well as I dust off my own little soapbox practically daily, I figured that this was a job I could sink my teeth into. Little did I know that awareness was just a small part of what I was going to have to encourage youth to do. Unbeknownst to me I was not supposed to simply inform but seek to change laws and policies that have been around for longer than my existence. Which quite frankly is intimidating to say the least.
Cluless and confused I'm sure I should be floundering or at least overwhelmed. But as I sit here reconsidering what I thought I knew and what I was sure I wanted for some reason I can't help but smile.
Maybe tomorrow I'll figure out why. . .
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