First Visit to W. Adams

I am not typically the type of person to develop pre-conceptions, beliefs, ideas, feelings, or judgements on a group or person before I have the chance to meet them and get to know them. Unfortunately, Wednesday was a bit of a disappointment because we did not get to meet the kids. However, I was able to see the property and crutch through the vast herd of high schoolers socializing between classes. As we were standing in the middle of the congested hallway I became somewhat nostalgic thinking back to my high school years. Thinking how fast they went by and how integral those years were in shaping who I am today.

This is what got me excited about working with west Adams. Not to relive my high school days, god no I would never want to do that again once was certainly enough. But to be there. That plain and simple. To be present. These kids don't need to be reminded of where their school is, their ethnicity, race, or social class. They need to be reminded that they are high schoolers. that high school is a period of 4 years in flux. You are not quite independent but you are molding who you are so you can be the ultimate best when you are. This is what high school should be about.

Which brings me back to what I started this whole thing off saying. I went to West Adams with no pre-conceived ideas about the school the kids, nothing. Although I did not get a chance to meet the kids we are to be working with I got a sense of the environment that they are immersed in everyday. A culture, a lifestyle, a generation that I am unfamiliar and ignorant. I was able to realize how little I know about these kids but am excited to learn about them. They are growing up in another time, almost another world than I did. A world where technology runs rampant. I expected little of my first trip to West Adams which was the best possible thing I could have done. Because it allowed me to dive right into this small world, this West Adams world on the corner of Vermont and Washington. That I would have otherwise been unable to enter.