{"id":2540,"date":"2016-10-29T16:44:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T20:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/?p=2540"},"modified":"2016-10-29T16:47:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T20:47:26","slug":"hugs-smiles-and-thunderheads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/hugs-smiles-and-thunderheads\/","title":{"rendered":"HUGS, SMILES, AND THUNDERHEADS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lingsey\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wow. It\u2019s hard to describe this program. It\u2019s exhausting. It\u2019s gratifying. It\u2019s terrifying. But most of all, it makes me want to get through class in the morning so I can get to Broad Ripple High School. I never come feeling poorly. I never come downtrodden. I come in excited about the kids\u2019 lives and their days.<\/p>\n

Some days, Broad Ripple is like heaven. We\u2019ve all had good days, the kids have had good days, the sun is shining, and smiling faces take over our room as we get to work. On those days, it\u2019s not hard to connect with the students. It\u2019s not hard to joke around and be another kid, rather than a wise, age-hardened mentor who has all the answers. On those days, I leave with hugs and smiles. The students make jokes about how two days is too long, how they can\u2019t wait until we\u2019re back. And we hurry back on Thursday to see their smiling faces again.<\/p>\n

Some days, Broad Ripple is a little rough. We haven\u2019t had good days; the kids haven\u2019t had good days. The sun is cowering behind thunderheads, the hallways are dark. On these days, it can be hard. It can be hard to keep a smile going. It can feel fake to tell the kids that everything is going to be okay, here\u2019s why you shouldn\u2019t feel bad, this is what happened when I was younger. It can feel forced and wrong, but the thing is, it isn\u2019t the words that matter at all. It\u2019s the presence. It\u2019s the listening, the caring. The effort to share what little knowledge might help. The peace of having a confidant who isn\u2019t in their school group. The effort to prove that this won\u2019t be another insincere and disappointing conversation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s sometimes hard to remember what middle school and high school were like. But spend a week in Broad Ripple High School, and you will realize how much it would\u2019ve meant to have someone there. You\u2019ll remember what it was like to be on the butt end. Spend a week in Broad Ripple High School and notice how much difference we make.<\/p>\n

Mike Nugent is a senior Economics major.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow. It\u2019s hard to describe this program. It\u2019s exhausting. It\u2019s gratifying. It\u2019s terrifying. But most of all, it makes me want to get through class in the morning so I can get to Broad Ripple High School. I never come feeling poorly. I never come downtrodden. I come in excited …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":624,"featured_media":2543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15637,37038],"tags":[],"coauthors":[265091],"class_list":["post-2540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broad-ripple","category-bu-tutor-reflections","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/624"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2545,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions\/2545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/wits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}