Exhausted!

I am not really super inspired to write something right now, because I am exhausted, but I will do my best. This feeling though reminds me of something that one of my professors said in class this past semester. He said that his father would always say, "how are you doing?" and if he said he was tired, his father would always say, "Well, are you tired because you are doing good?" So, I guess I am tired because I am hopefully doing good in the world. Also, on mondays, we work from 8:30 AM-8 PM (so that we can only work until noon on Fridays), but I think that is part of the reason why I am so very exhausted right now.

You may have read Corey's blog where he talks about loving public transportation so much because he rides the same train with the same people every day to and from work because there is only a train every 1/2 hour. Well, for me, it is a totally different feeling. In Boston, there are trains, during the high hours, about every 1-3 minutes, and thousands and thousands of people ride the train (called the "T") every day, so there is never a chance that I am going to see the same person twice. As opposed to the people on the train being familiar with one another and talking, almost everyone on the "T" is silent, reading the newspaper, reading a book, listening to an iPod, etc. Last night, as I was riding home on the "T", I was already in a meloncholy mood from the rain and from a 12 hour day of work, I was just looking around at all the people on the "T" with me, and nobody talked, people looked lonely, and I felt lonely. I felt like I was feeling the burdens of all of the people on the train, and I just kept on listening to my iPod. I was talking to my roommate, Meghan, after I got home, and she agreed that sometimes the T can be one of the most depressing places in the world. I like it because it gets me to work without having to deal with traffic and because it is cheap, but there really is no benefit, except for getting to read the newspaper on the way to work every morning. And my commute takes me anywhere from 45 minutes (during the high time/rush hour) to 1 1/2 hours (during the slow time -when I leave work on Mondays at 8 and if there are lots of delays). Anyways, I am not sure how many more times I can listen to the songs on my iPod without going crazy, so if anyone wants to mail me some CDs, please do it. I will send you my address on facebook!

Anyways, I am beginning to see many clients of my own. I have helped numerous people with resumes and job searches already, with housing assistance, and public benefits. I met with this wonderful woman yesterday to begin to make a resume, who imigrated from Panama 30 years ago, after what would be middle school there, but never enrolled in High School in the US. Now she is in a GED program, she fluently speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and she is an assistant teacher at an afterschool program at one of the elementary schools, which she has been doing for 10 years. She has a huge long list of trainings/certificates that she has recieved and endless awards of excellence in her work. She doesn't get enough hours at the after school program, so is looking for another job. It's crazy that she is such a smart women, knows so many languages, has so much training and experience, but that it may be hard for her to get a job because she does not yet have her GED. It is crazy to see the kinds of barriers that are blocking some of our clients from self-sufficiency. It is also difficult to see other clients who are wanting to apply for jobs that are kind of out of their reach. It is hard to figure out the balance between encouragement and being realistic.

I hope this does not sound negative because I am so exhausted right now, because I really enjoy the job. I definitely feel like I am making a difference in people's lives, and I have learned more about social services and how to help others in very practical ways than I have ever imagined that I could in 1 1/2 weeks!