THINK POSITIVE

Being at home and around my brother and his friends, I am always so motivated to inspire them to use their energy and time towards positive things. Here is a group of such bright young boys, yet they're so lazy! All their parents (mine included) work so much that they don't have time to give them the amount of attention they need. Furthermore, they lack good, older role models. The current losers they look up to bum around and smoke all the damn time. Granted, I'm not the most ideal "cool" older person they need right now, but I do hope that my influence in their lives will be beneficial to them for the time being. In the two days that I've been around them, I've managed to gain a bit of respect and they actually enjoy listening to my corny stories... often equipped with a life lesson to be learned at the end. In the upcoming weeks, I hope to be able to engage them in more conversations and help them come up with a plan to get them to where they want to be in the future. The hardest part about it all is trying to figure out where to take them so that our mini-field trips can be educational and fun. So far, what I have planned include visits to the Getty Museum, the Museum of Tolerance and a biology expo. I really believe that they WANT to succeed. The problem is they don't know how. I have a terrible feeling that teachers look at them and think that they are lost causes cuz they look like a bunch of hooligans. Though they sometimes do... they're far from it. In fact, on their own, they engage in some very thought-provoking conversations. My challenge will be to strip the laziness away and be able to transform them so that others can see the great potential that I see in them.

My time with the boys will be a great preview for what's in store for me with Teach for America. I just found out yesterday that I will be a teacher next year! I'm very excited to find out where I will be placed and what subject and grade level I will be teaching. If I'm successful with the boys, hopefully it'll prepare me just a bit more in becoming a great teacher.

But for now... it's bedtime. Tomorrow, I must report bright and early at 9:30 sharp for my first-ever call to jury duty at the East LA Courthouse. I'm actually really stoked! As a HUGE fan of the movie, 12 Angry Men, I hope to be placed on the case and be the voice of reason in the deliberation room. However, I'm a little concerned that once I proclaim my Berkeley-ness and/or my soon-to-be degrees in Political Science and Sociology, they'll dismiss me from the jury panel for sure. Add my aspirations to attend Law School, and I'm definitely a goner. I'm thinking I may say that I'm a sorority girl from Rio Hondo and that I'm a Mass Communications major. But then again... perjury's not cool either.