From Beverly to Roseland: my daily routine

Everyday (Monday through Friday that is), I wake up, shower, get dressed, fill my travel mug with coffee, pack my lunch (which is usually leftovers from the night before), and get into my little White Two door Honda Civic to drive to work.  As I pull out of the drive way, I start my 15-20 minute commute to work.  Now this ride is really not that long and its only four five turns total but the journey is worth talking about.  The neighborhood of Beverly where we live is very nice.  Nice people, nice houses, families are economically stable and all of them are white.  As I leave the area of Beverly and travel south down Western Ave, my scene changes from trees, houses, and families to the hussel and bussel of businesses and cars until I turn east down 107th where the scenery changes back to tree, houses, families, and train tracks.  My two mile drive down 107th is quite diverse actually.  Although I don't know the names of the neighborhoods I am driving through, you can see the change visually by looking at the houses, the people, the conditions of the roads, and what other landmarks are along the way.  When I get to S. Vincennes and the overpass of the highway, the scene changes to an area of houses that are still pretty nice but the population is now Black.  I see the children walking to school as I drive along and when I stop at a stop sign at the corner of S. Sangamon, I smile and wave to the crossing guard everyday no matter which side of the road she's on.  Now when I did this my first commute to work, I was worried about turning onto the right streets but the fact that she smiled and waved to me gave me ease for the rest of the day.  This is the first highlight of my day and it makes me very sad when she's not standing there because of the rain or something else.  So then I continue on my way and make my way into the Washington Heights area which is a Black populated area where the houses are smaller, run down, but full of kids and people who are out making a better life for themselves.  This part of my journey is where the scene starts to include busy intersections, more train tracks to cross, convenient stores, and lots more people walking around.  As I continue down 107th, I begin to see more people around and the area starts to get a little "rough."  As I turn onto S. Michigan, there are no longer houses but now many stores, some are open for business while others are boarded up, lots of people walking and waiting at bus stops, and other businesses and traffic lights.  In the morning this street has plenty of people waiting for buses or driving but at 5 when I'm driving home, everyone is outside: talking to people, drinking out of paper bags, honking their horns, and blasting their music.  Friday's are especially crazy because people have worked hard all week and are ready for the weekend to begin.  My journey ends as I make a left onto 113th and then another left into the parking lot.  

It's amazing to see the diversity in just 15 minutes to work but the journey is amazing everyday.  Each day I see different people and each day I'm sure there is another story being told.  I feel so blessed to live in a safe and comfortable neighborhood as Beverly but I stop and think about what my life would be like living by S. Michigan in Roseland.  Would I be safe? Would I be accepted? I would definitly be a minority but I could learn so much from that.  It's amazing the opportunities God has given me and I thank Him everyday for giving me the strength and motivation to take this journey each day to serve the people in the area that really need my help.

As I got to work on Friday, I knew it was going to be a busy day.  I met three of my clients and learned more about the intake process and paperwork.  I don't have time to write out all the details but I will tell you one thing I heard from a client. "Thank you" she said, "Thank you for all the services you have to offer.  I appreciate you guys helping us single moms with things we need for our babies. "  This to me was mind blowing because first of all, there is this stigma of social services clients having a bad attitude towards help from people but this woman was so thankful for everything that we were doing and it was amazing.  Secondly, I was shocked by this comment because honestly I had just filled out her paperwork for intake.  I really didn't do anything for her yet that deserved a thank you but at the same time it made me smile to think that this is what I will be doing for the next nine months.  I will be the person helping these women,  I will be the person to give these services in order for them to raise their children,  I will be the one making a difference in their lives and mine. What a blessing this will be to honor and serve God though these women in need.  

A thought for you:  What is your journey like to work everyday? Are you on autopilot getting there and back or do you observe what is around you?  How do you feel at the end of the day? Do you feel enlightened or drained?  How are you making a difference for the people you serve?

God's gifts, my talents, and God's plan for me

On Sunday, Father Tom gave a homily during the family mass about, get this, A Christmas Carol.  As soon as he said this, I immediately smiled and thought about my dad who loves this movie and makes us watch it every Christmas Eve.  For years I thought it was so long and boring but recently I have come to appreciate the story and its meaning.  During his homily, Father Tom talked about how Scrooge sees scenes from his past, present, and future and reflects on different parts of his life.  Scrooge made the choices he did and suffered some of those consequences.  Father Tom said that the choices Scrooge made in his life are reflective of his greedy lifestyle that is all about work and money.  Eventually, after Scrooge sees the dark side of his future, the redemptive part of the story comes in and Scrooge is a whole new person.  He wakes up Christmas Day and is able to start a new life that is about other people and more important things then money and work.  Father Tom connected this story to the life of a Christian in which we sin and maybe make bad choices before accepting God as our Lord and Savior.  As we accept Jesus into our lives, we are then able to live a life of service and love for God and everyone around us.  The main part of Father Tom's homily was the idea that God has given each of us gifts and talents that are reflected in our everyday actions: in our jobs, in our families, in our friends, and every interaction we have.  The question becomes which gifts and talents are we using and which ones might we be forgetting about.  I think that God is a very sneaky person in this sense because He shows and tells us to be good Christians by serving other people with our talents and gifts but how are we supposed to know what those gifts are let alone remember to use them. 

This concept of my gifts and talents is especially meaningful to me this week and next in particular but I'm sure will be relevant to my entire volunteer year.  Today was the first day I had contact with my clients.  For most of the morning, I made phone calls to my clients, explained the Family Case Management program to them and then set up a time for my supervisor and I to come visit them in their homes to complete the intake process.  After leaving about 15 messages, talking to about 6 people, and having at least 4 disconnected phones, I had initial contact with the clients I will help enroll and intake into our program.  Now you would think that a phone call and getting basic information about a client would be easy but hello what part of social services is "easy"?! Ya, not a whole lot.  Most of the clients were easy to talk to but it was very hard to get used to saying "Hi I'm Janine Moretti a Family Case Manager for Catholic Charities" to every person I talked to.  (Yes Mom and Dad, Case Manager is pretty official huh? :) )  So as life always is, nothing is every simple or easy so of course I had some bumps along my way.  One of them was when a father of a pregnant 23 year old answered the phone and asked me about the case management program.  When I told him about the services we had to offer, he went on about how him and his wife have been trying to get their daughter help with this pregnancy and into a program like ours.  He expressed his concern to me about how his daughter is never home, she's always "chasing a boy around" and how she really needs these services.  Since our program is voluntary, the client would have to come into the office or call me to verbalize that she would like to be part of the program.  This may have been a hard thing for the father to understand but I did give him all my information and hopefully it will be passed on to her.  This phone call was eye opening but also pondering because there are many pregnant women in Chicago that need our services and our help but it is up to them to make the effort to enroll.  The caring and protective father is trying to do everything he can to get his daughter into this program but the 23 year old needs to make her own decisions which is hard for the father to handle I'm sure.  

Another client I talk to today was what we call a "high risk" case which basically means that the client either has health issues, family problems, or sometimes even personal problems that will put her unborn child in danger.  This client had all of these.  She was currently pregnant and smoked.  She has five other kids but no custody of them, and she has had 6 other pregnancies that have either been aborted, still birthed or miscarried.  Obviously this client is in need of some serious help not just with her pregnancy but with her well being as well.  These are the things that I am going to find most difficult to deal with because people's stories are so different depending on what is happening in their life during that particular time.  The numbers don't explain the story and the stories don't even have to be explained.  The past is what it is and unfortunately no one can change that but our program can help this client and change her future as well as the future of her unborn child.  Now I know that there are so many more underlining statements and discussions in this information but the point I want to make is that God's plan for me, well at least this is what I think it is, is to help people in any way that I possibly can.  Right now that population seems to be these pregnant and parenting women who need my case management services and honestly this scares me.  One: I'm new to the area, two: I am a complete minority in the area I am working in, and three: how am I supposed to relate to mothers or pregnant women?  Even though these questions will always be running through my head, I am constantly telling myself that this is God's plan and purpose for me.  The purpose of life is a life of purpose.  Throughout this year I will strive to be the best case manager I can be for every client I come in contact with.  I hope to make a connection to each and every one of them by gaining their respect and trust.  I know this is not going to be easy but if God thinks I can do it, then I can do it.

With all that being said, take a moment and think to yourself: What are the gifts and talents God has given you? How are you using them?  Are you using all of them or just some? I encourage you all to think about and live out these questions tomorrow, this week, this month, this year, and for the rest of your life.

Random Chicago fact: Apparently you can drink on the Metra which is the express train going back and forth downtown.  Most of the people who communte into the city for work use this and have a nice cold drink on their way home. 

Patience is a virtue....and a hard one at that.

One of the biggest life lessons I have learned since coming to Chicago and living in community has been patience.  Now for those of you who know me, I am very much a people person but I also am always doing something and plan things out to every hour of my day.  In college, my planner was my Bible and I would literally be lost with out it.  Some people, cough Kevin cough, hated it because it ran my life but that was the way I got through college: being ridiculously busy, overscheduling myself, and helping as many people as I could.  In Chicago, things are a little different.  I still have plenty of things to do, plenty of people to interact with but I have yet to get a planner which is really annoying me but hopefully the secretary at Catholic Charities will be giving me one soon.  Anyways, patience has come up in a lot of my time here in Chicago including not planning every weekend out four days in advance, waiting for my boss to get out of a meeting, traffic, at the grocery store waiting in the ridiculous lines, and my favorite: waiting for the "function based" computer system to download a file or page with client information on it.  I have found myself taking a deep breath for a couple of seconds and getting the tension out of my body in order to realize the bigger picture of everything.  This, without a doubt, is going to be one of my biggest challenges this year.  I remember having trouble with patience in South Africa, Alabama, and Virginia but someone told me/I realized that people may do things slower or differently then I normally do it which is culturally based I guess.  The main difference I am finding this year is the difference in lifestyle between my life at Merrimack (aka go, go, go) to my life in Chicago/volunteering (aka slower but still busy/focusing on only a couple of things at a time such as community, prayer, and service).  Patience has always been something I struggle with at times in my life and I really hope that this year of volunteering will help me to filter out all the craziness in my life and really focus on what is most important to the people I am serving, my roommates, God, and lastly myself.  One of the themes of orientation was making your life about "we" instead of "me" and I strive every day to live a more selfless lifestyle so I can fully embrace everyone around me in order to fully serve them and God.  Thank you all for your patience and I hope that I will find more in my life soon.


Chicago fact: So this is completely contradicatory to what this post was about but since Chicago drivers are often very inpatient, I have learned to become a very aggressive driver.  Not because I want to but because I would get driven off the road if I didn't drive aggressively. Go figure.

An update...

So sorry i haven't updated this in a while but I have been busy with work, hanging out with my roommates, and doing things around Chicago.  I think I have finally gotten into a routine and am exctied to be settled into my new home and volunteer year.  Everything has been going really well so far.  We love our house and the people we have met have been very generous and friendly.  J-Bird and his wife Julie have been amazing and I cant thank them enough for taking us around the city and giving us plenty of food.  Since Labor day we have been very busy with volunteering, dinners with the Augustinian Priests, a high school football game, tubbing on Lake Michigan, and last night we went to a White Sox Game, which was a lot of fun.  Our seats were all the way up in the upper grandstand but the view was great.  Funny moment: the guy sitting right next to me caught a fly ball which was very exciting but I'm sure we didn't get on TV or anything fun like that.  As most of you know, the White Sox aren't the best team in the League so they lost horribly but it was still fun to experience a game.  Although, it was really hard for me to cheer for a Sox team but thank goodness it wasn't the Red Sox (ps Boston/Merrimack ppl, how are the red sox doing by the way? :) )!!  The crowd was fun too but of course not as crazy as Yankees or Red Sox fans.  There were also fireworks after the game which was really cool to watch from our seats in a dark stadium.  The ride home took a little bit longer then we thought, damn IL highways haha, but we made it home safely and got up this morning to go to work.  Apparently we are going to a couple of parties this weekend with J-Bird and a family mass at St. Rita which should be a lot of fun.  So theres my update for the fun stuff, now onto my volunteering.

I am still learning a lot about the computer system and my job position itself but its been getting busier which is nice.  Last week I took public transportation into Downtown for a new student orientation which was a nightmare figuring it out but I made it there and back in one piece; well not one piece, the back of my heals were full of blood and blisters because of my new shoes but I survived haha.  Come to find out, Nora Clark who I used to dance with lives right next to the Metra station I took but I didnt know this until last night, go figure.  Then for Tuesday, Wednesday and today, I had to go to a training near downtown which I drove to each day because of course there was no trains around where I was.  The training was long but it was all about the computer system we have to use for our clients so it was very useful and necessary.  So today I got out of the training at noon and drove all the way back to the office just to eat lunch, do one chart, and have my boss tell me I can go home.  So here I am sitting at home before all my roommates and enjoying my extra free time because this will probably never happen again.  I still have a bunch of other random trainings to go to for various things but I am learning more each day which is exciting.  O another thing, I went to a training/meeting last week about assessments we have to do and one of the things talked about was doing home assessments in tough homes that are in not so good conditions.  When we were talking about this i remember stopping to think: How am I going be able to do this? Am I going be able to help these moms? Are they going even take me seriously?  These are the questions that are running through my head as I sit in this meeting and hear my co-workers talk about horrific home visits and home assessments they have been on. Honestly these are questions I ask myself every day thinking about my job but the more training I get the more comfortable I become with the idea of going into peoples homes and helping them in any way that I can.  My year as a case manager is not going to be easy but I am willing to take on the challenges and everything God puts in front of me.

Chicago Fact: The current major, Richard Daley, has served for 20 years and has decided not to run for reelection this coming February which will apparently cause a mess of the election process and the citizens of Chicago.

First Adventures in Chicago

We have been in Chicago for a week now and I am loving it all.  Last Thursday and Friday was my first days of work which weren't that exciting because I don't have much to do yet but I'm sure it will pick up soon.  For most of this month I will be reading policies and procedures, doing computer training, and going to other trainings around the city for workshops and such.  Then hopefully I will be going out into the field to work with some clients and shadowing these home visits with my supervisor.  Right now its a little boring sitting in my cubicle alone but everyone is very nice and helpful so I am excited to get started.

Now onto the fun stuff.  This was our first weekend in Chicago and it happened to be a three day weekend, awesome right?  So on Friday when I finally got home from work, my roommates greeted me joyfully and were ready for the weekend to begin.  That night we drove to the western part of south Chicago where we had dinner and great conversation with Cap Corps Volunteers who are also serving one year in Chicago.  It was a great opportunity to see how they lived, talk to them about their program and just have great conversation with people who are committed to a year of service with another organization.  The night was filled with lots of pasta, great conversation, and lots of laughs.  Saturday we slept in which was great, had our community meeting, and then Griffin and I went grocery shopping while Molly and MC went for a run.  Ok so of course working at Price Chopper for seven years makes me bias to all other grocery stores which usually doesn't bother me but OMG this one was insane!!! It was Saturday afternoon and the store, Fairplay, only had six registers on the front end! The lines were down all of the aisles and it took forever to get checked out.  At one point I turned to Griffin and told him that I was having an anxiety attack because one: there were so many people squished around me, two: there was only 6 registers, and three: I couldn't do anything about it.  Needless to say my first test of patience was in the grocery store and I refuse to go shopping on a Saturday again.  After making it home, we unloaded the groceries, which by the way we only went over our weekly budget by $5, and then got ready for the day.  After discussing what we wanted to do, we left the house at 330 and went to the Orange Line or L train to ride into the city.  We took the train to the Loop and got off at the Library stop where we proceeded to walk to the Bean and Millenium Park.  The day was beautiful and there were plenty of things to look at.  The Bean, for those who never heard of it, is a huge mirrored structure that looks like a bean and reflects everything around it.  We took some pretty cool pictures of us and enjoyed looking at our weird reflections.  

The next stop was Millennium Park where we saw the Jay Pritzker Pavilion where concerts are played throughout the year.  We then proceeded to walk in the direction of the water and found a stream in part of the park.  Griffin, MC and I stood in the water to get a picture but then got yelled at by park security who told us that we weren't allowed to be in the water.  Go figure, we get in trouble the first weekend but Griffin was right when he said there weren't any signs saying we couldn't go in.  After that little incident we went down to the water and walked along the edge of Lake Michigan which is gorgeous by the way.  We saw lots of boats and took some great pictures until it was time to go home.  We took the train back and stopped at Chipotle for some burritos for dinner.  We got home, ate our food, and then got ready for our first night out in Chicago.  We ended up going to this place called Sean's Rhino Bar which is about 4 blocks away from our house.  The bar was very fun and everyone there were our age or a little older and from the neighborhood.  The first hour or so we just sat buy ourselves cause we were of course the new people in town who no one wanted to talk to but by the end of the night we were talking to everyone and having a great time. 

Sunday morning we got up really early after a minimal 4 hours of sleep and went to St. John Fisher Parish for 8 am mass, which was very early but hopefully God gave us brownie points for actually going.  After mass we met up with one of our neighbors J-Bird and his wife Julie who took us out on their boat for the day.  We all pilled in the car, drove to Indiana, and put their speed boat in Lake Michigan.  The day was filled of sunshine, great company and an amazing tour of Chicago from the water.  We saw all the sights including beaches, Soliders' Field, the Bears Stadium, Navy Peer and downtown.  We were so thankful that we have amazing neighbors to give us this unique tour of the city.  After driving around for a while, I jumped into the 62 degree Lake Michigan, screamed so loud, and climbed  back on the boat after about 5 minsprepared.  Julie made an amazing dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and fruit salad. It tasted so good and we are incredibly thankful for their gracious actions and for showing us around Chicago in a way that no one else could.  After a long day on the Lake, we spent the night watching American Beauty and Sister Act before heading to bed.

Today is a new day and we are excited to see what else Chicago has to offer.  Hopefully we will go into the city and have another fun filled day before starting work again tomorrow. 

Chicago fact: When saying street names you leave out "street," so we live on 104th and Maplewood not 104th Street

First Impressions

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was anxious and excited for my day ahead.  We packed up our ridiculously heavy bags, prayed one last time together, said our goodbyes, and packed the car for the airport.  The ride to the airport was surreal because we were all talking and I'm pretty sure one one realized we were actually leaving.  When we arrived at the airport, we had our first adventure right on the curb of transferring stuff into different bags just to pass the weight limit.  Then we go through security and the guy checking IDs tells me I look like I'm up to something and proceeds to tell myself, MC, and Molly that we all look like trouble makers.  We finally get to the gate where we wait for an hour or so but then as we were lining up the board, I get pulled aside for a random check from TSA.  Needless to say it was quite the adventure before we even got on the plane.  Luckily the plane ride was short and before we knew it, we landed in Chicago.  We were 20 mins early and baggage claim didn't lose any of the 12 bags we had.  Father Tom then picked us up and we drove to our new home passing many divers areas, a few white castles, and a lot of history according to Father Tom.  We arrived at the house and ran into our new home.  The house is so cute and very roomy for 4 people but the train tracks are our neighbor to the right of our house. (We have already experienced the shaking of the house and the floor as they go by.)  The night was spent relaxing, driving the mini van, and watching The Princess Bride as a community.  The house is so adorable and I am so happy to be here.  I love my roommate and am excited for this adventure.

Today we got up and went to all our sites where we will be working this year.  First was my site which is Catholic Charities, it took about 20 mins to get there and the office is located in the eastern part of the city and is on the street corner.  We went in and met my boss Ms. Cole who was very nice and gave us a tour of the office area.  I have a nice little cubical and I am excited to get started.  Next we went to St. Margaret of Scotland which is where Molly is going to be computer teacher.  The school was very nice and it looks like shes gonna have a great time.  Then we went to St. Rita, an all boys high school where Griffin will be working as a Campus Minister.  Last was St. John Fisher Elementary School where Mary Catherine will be a pre-K assistant.  We will be starting work tomorrow so we will all be pooped by the end of the day I'm sure.

Fun Chicago Fact: People like to cut you off /pass you on the right when you are stopped at a stop sign or Red light.