I'm finding it hard to believe that 2016 is making its grand exit with the winter holidays just around the corner. And I am finding it even harder to believe that college is over, graduation is over, and being a "kid" is well, over!
But with reaching these milestones, I am able to be thankful for real life things. Not just for my family and friends. Not just for having a good life, and soulful food on my plate. Not just the nice clothes and vacations and so much more. But I am thankful for purpose.
All through college I balanced on the beam of career paths. Moving back and forth, daily, between what I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, and who I wanted to become after graduation. It was a beyond exciting moment to finally declare my Communication Studies major just before the start of my senior year at West Chester University. I walked across that stage on graduation day with no clue what I would see on the other side.
What I was sure of, was that I needed to find a purpose. I needed to find where I belonged, not just where I fit in. I needed something to stand out, not just fall into place. I needed something to challenge me and my abilities. I needed a job, but a job with a position that mattered.
I have now been a Community Projects Coordinator at YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School since mid-August. But since mid-August, I have also been a part of a family, a movement, and a purpose.
Over these last few months, I have been in awe with the creativity, leadership, strength, entrepreneurship, optimism, motivation, and resilience of the 200+ students who enter our building each and every day from every part of Philadelphia. Barely even scrapping the surface of my time with YouthBuild and these students, I have been a part of something much bigger than a school of young adults looking for an education. I have become a part of a space where each individual student matters, even in their moments lacking such traits, when they act out of character, or struggle, or fail to show up, or have real life things to put before their homework.
They matter. And we care.
Though I could write this whole article just about things I have experienced and learned in my time at YouthBuild thus far, I will just say that I have fallen in love with watching these students strive. Pushing and pulling through every obstacle they have ever known to achieve their dreams for themselves, for their children, and for their families. I have fallen in love with my purpose to serve, teach, love, support, and guide each and every one of them, these young professionals who were once labeled as something much less relevant to their resilient success.
So this year, as my time of being thankful for materialistic things has expired, I am thankful for the self-growth that I have experienced in this journey. I am thankful for waking up each day loving what I do. And I am thankful for finding my purpose, my place in a position that matters. A position that actually thrives to change the lives of our youth. I am thankful to be a part of something this world needs.
I am thankful for these real life things.
