Embrace the Differences

To start off I just want to apologize for taking forever to update you all on my life but for some reason my days and nights and weekends go by so fast I forget to write down my thoughts.  So finally, here are my thoughts from the past few weeks and I hope you all enjoy them.  

"Embrace the Differences"

This is a phrase I thought of randomly one day and it really stood out in my mind.  Everywhere we look there are differences around us, both around me and around you.  There are different people with different skin colors, heights, weights, eye color, hair color.  There are people living different lifestyles, working different jobs, driving different cars.  There are different scenes and things happening all around us: people are walking, people are driving, the leaves are blowing, kids are laughing, planes are flying, lights are changing.  Everything around us is different and I have found that embracing these differences make your life and your journey that much more important.  I don't remember which day it was that I came up with this phrase but it was sometime in the past few weeks and it has stuck with me ever since.  

"Embracing all differences no matter how big or how small."  This was something I wrote in my journal when I was thinking about things that I have noticed or learned lately that are different from what I am used to (aka the "norm" but I hate that word so I'm not going to use it).  One example of this is the following: remember that crossing guard I wrote about that I see everyday? Well a couple of weeks ago I stopped seeing her and I was wondering where she was.  Hoping she wasn't sick or gone for some reason.  Then the next day I was talking with my supervisor after a home visit (which I will talk about in a minute) and she told me that the city of Chicago had recently been hit with a huge budget cut which has affected a lot of businesses and people including the public schools.  So the public schools were forced to take two weeks off because they couldn't afford to keep the schools open.  Therefore, that is why the crossing guard hasn't been outside.  So the kids will be back in the public schools as of October 12th.  Now budget cuts are understandable unfortunately, especially with things today but to let kids out of school for two weeks during the first month of school is a little ridiculous.  Public schools of Chicago especially already have trouble with giving the kids proper education and keeping them in school so this 2 week break is moving everyone backwards before they can go forward with the school year.  Thoughts? For me and I'm sure my mom and all other teachers would say that this is absurd but at the same time desperate times call for desperate measures, which means taking the break and making it up at the end of the year. 

Second difference I found is pretty obvious but hasn't caused many challenges until recently.  As most of you know, the south side of Chicago is pretty rough in places and has a large majority of African American and Hispanic people.  Now Beverly, where I live, is all White middle class people but my office is in the complete opposite area.  I am the only White person (and girl) in the neighborhood, on the streets, and especially in my office but this does not phase many people.  My coworkers are extremely nice, helpful, and curious about who I am as a person and not the color of my skin.  It might be because all of the past AVs have been White females too but I see it as I'm there to help them and our clients just as much as anyone else is.  My coworkers may look differently, talk differently, and live differently then I do but when we're at work helping clients, we're all on the same level.  I may not understand the ways of some of my coworkers or the language they use but they know I am A. new, B. white, and C. from NH haha.  I am different and I am embracing that but sometimes its easier said then done.  For example, one of the first home visits I went on with my supervisor was to an area with a bunch of people outside including kids from the public schools who were out on the streets because school was out of session.  As we were walking up to our client's house, I see these two little Black boys playing near the house and staring me down.  As we walked closer to the house one of them said "Get that white girl out of our neighborhood.  We don't want that white bitch here!" Now at first I heard it, acknowledged it and wanted to move on but the kids were following behind us and were still talking.  Finally my supervisor turned around and told them to go read a book or something and to not say those types of things because they were not nice to say.  Eventually they went away and we continued on into our clients house.  This honestly didn't bother me because I was with my supervisor and because I knew I would be judged by someone eventually so this didn't upset me too much but it did reiterate the fact that I'm different, much different.  Being different is not a bad thing at all but somethings I think we all may feel uncomfortable when we are that different.  Whether it be look wise, job wise, gender, personality, or beliefs.  Everyone is different and that is something we all need to embrace, not ignore.

I would now like to share with you more about

• C--a 17 year old pregnant teen who has an anger problem and was a habitual runaway
• T--a recovered crack addict who is a mother of 5 children none of which she has custody of and she is pregnant with another
• K--a 24 year old mother of a 2 year old, who has major behavioral issues, and a 2 month old.  She is stressed and suffers from postpartum depression
• S--a 22 year old pregnant mother of a 4 year old who is going to college full-time and has a grandmother who is very conservative and protective
• Finally, J--a 25 year old mother who has an 8 year old son, a 6 month old son, and is currently pregnant with triplets.

These may be considered my "high risk" or extreme cases but they are my clients and they are people just like me and you.  They are different and they need my help and our services to make their lives that much better.

Embrace the Differences.  Embrace who you are, embrace who others are.  Embrace the differences and you will continue to grow each day.