We went to Maryland last weekend to see our son Alex graduate from his ten month stint of public service with Americorps. Here is the short version:
In many ways our son was one of those lost kids. He did very poorly in high school (by choice) and made a lot of bonehead decisions by the time he was 18. He was lost, had no direction or knowledge of his potential. His values were confused, etc., etc., etc. We knew there was a great young man buried deep inside him because we knew him from an earlier time. But in many ways he had lost touch with who he was. We also knew that it was necessary for him to get away from us and into some meaningful environment in order to re-discover himself.
Americorps = Public Service
Holy Sh*t! What a change. We could not have hoped for more. His emergence did not go unnoticed in Americorp either. He came home literally covered in awards...and not just participation awards. There are leadership awards and commitment awards and contribution awards. Of the four big awards they give out at the end of the ten months, he got one of them and almost got a second. (This is out of 160 team members.) Only one of the 160 young people got more recognition during their ten months. Nobody wants to read a bunch of details...so I will spare you. I will simply finish with another profound....Holy Sh*t!!!! And "thank god".
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Congratulations! I'm so happy for you guys - you must be so proud!
ReplyDeleteALL of us are back in Cuenca, I'll chronicle the saga in an email to you in the next week or so. Take care!