Session 14: Endings & Beginnings

Short session today.  In honor of Wella's excitement over the future, I couldn't help but point out that endings and beginnings are pretty much the same, or at least they often arrive at the same time.  In this case, they definitely have.

So before I share my thoughts from today, I talked to my boss about Manadoob next year, and I won't be able to teach it in the future.  However, our Education Director, who has been with the Club longer than I, will be transitioning to a role where she will have more interaction with families and help in coordinating support for them much like a case worker (she is getting her Master's Degree in Social Work).  While I am sad to hand it off, Alley is an amazing asset to the Club and to the lives of our members.  Her greater communication with parents will also likely give her tools to supplement what she is teaching in the class by bringing her insights and lessons into another forum.  I don't want to let Manadoob go, but it couldn't be in better hands.

I don't have much to say about today's session, but it definitely had a somewhat somber tone to it.  It was bright for a moment when I told them that they FINALLY (to them) get to take their kits home.  But, for the most part, it was pretty quiet and unassuming.  There was the feeling that things were ending, and it was a gray rainy day here after weeks of sunshine and hot weather, so the energy was just low.  Still, I asked them if they are going to miss the program, and they all answered heavily in the affirmative.  Well, all of them except RJ, who firmly stated that she wouldn't miss it at all because she hates everything.  So I asked her why she only comes on Manadoob days, and she said so she could get the kit at the end.  I asked her why she wanted the kit so much if she didn't like the program, and she mumbled something dismissively.  So, even the girl who is mad at EVERYTHING grew and came to like the program.

In fact, perhaps in the last great Manadoob moment I will experience, RJ and I had an interesting connection.  We were talking about good things we can do for other people, and RJ said she could ignore them.  I asked why that would help them, and she said because she wouldn't be mean to them.  So RJ and I had a discussion about how not doing mean things is not the same as helping them.  I expected significant resistance on her part to that idea, but I saw sincere thought and consideration in her eyes.  Usually she is dismissive or confrontational, but she really considered my words.  Shocked isn't the right word, but something just a notch lower than that.

Next week we will be having a pizza party and watching the DVD, so it's not quite over.  I will have some final thoughts next week after it is officially over.  In the meantime, thanks again for reading, and commenting, and really just caring about the lives of these kids you have never met!  I will do my best to get some pictures, but it's difficult because I'm never downstairs with the kids anymore.

Ryan