Doing things out of our comfort zones and participating in an activity that you have never done before can be very healthy for our current and future selves. This past Thursday, I was fortunate to start my Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) at the Northview Middle School in the adult education wing. I am assisting Chrissy Matthews, who teaches English to about 16 people, aged 25-45, whose first language is not english. All of the students grew up elsewhere, in places like Mexico, Venezuela, China, Vietnam, and many other cool places.
My specific role consisted of walking around and talking to all the students to get to know them better and so they can get to know me better. I met Edward and Ana, who are in their forties and are married. Ana’s english is pretty solid and Edward is certainly getting there, they are originally from Mexico. Not that I have favorites, but someone who certainly is awesome to talk to is my guy Daniel. Daniel is 45 and sits in his chair like he is 13 🙂 Daniel called me handsome and also said I was a great volunteer, compliments are always welcome! Daniel’s English is seemingly advanced and is very vocal in class. Lastly, Chrissy had me take two students, Marianna and Jennifer, to a separate table to work on an activity because they tend to be a little quiet. We were able to learn about each other and effectively complete the worksheet. Day 1 was amazing and I can tell this is going to be a very enlightening experience.