Getting down to the wire...

Tonight I took the respite teen group to the park. I've been in charge of this group since my co-worker left in June. Respite means they have an individualized education plan at school usually due to having an intellectual disability or behavioral problem. I took them to the park last week, our first field trip. I felt relatively uncomfortable because these guys are ages 14-22, some very big, and there were so many young kids on the playground that people were definitely weirded out by these huge guys getting too excited on the swings. So today, for a change of pace, we went to a different park even though I didn't really want to take them out again because I'm generally unmotivated at work lately. And I had a blast! However, it made me both happy and sad...

Happy because...the young kids that were there didn't judge my teens at all. Ashlee (who came to the park with us) and my co-worker started a game of football with some of my special needs teens and a bunch of younger neighborhood kids and everyone had so much fun! All of these younger kids started hanging out with us and we found out they knew some of the kids Ashlee and I work with. Also, I saw one of the refugee girls I taught in April and her English has already gotten so much better (and I remembered her name!).

Sad because...the American kids we were hanging out with had wandered over by themselves or were with very young mothers who had no interest in actually watching their kids, but just gossiping with their friends. This one young girl was only 4 and had come over with her 11 year old neighbor wearing no shoes and extremely dirty. These kids were all there just taking care of themselves and watching each other at a very young age. It was obvious no one cared and even though they may have been troublemakers at school or in other situations (2 boys were playing with pretty real looking fake guns), they were all so sweet to us and the teens I came with and it was so obvious they all just needed attention. I know there are so many kids all over the country in the same position or worse. I don't really know what to say about this, but overall it was a good time.



Other than that story, just wanted to say I leave Syracuse 2 weeks from tomorrow and 1 week from tomorrow is my last day of work. I can't believe how short an amount of time that is. Although I'm extremely excited to go back home and for everything I'll be doing next year, I'm starting to get really sad at the thought of never living in the northside of Syracuse ever again. Driving my kids/teens home everyday, I see so many people I know, I really feel like I'm home here. I know this small area of Syracuse so well and I love so many of the people in it. I love shouting hi out the window to so many people that I pass by in my 5 minute drive to work. As I said to my community tonight, even if I live again in an area where I know people, I don't think it'll ever be a place that feels so much like a real neighborhood like this. I won't be able to drive down the street and literally know half the people I drive by. I'm really going to miss this...