I love the IDEA of City Year

So, here is a long overdue post.

My summer break has come and gone. It was full of travel, the southwest, good friends, laughter, ocean, silence, neon lights, prayer, family, and a whole lotta love! What more could I ask for. It is not well documented like last summer's excursions, but I think I like it that way. I stayed very much in the moment.

And now I am back in the northeast with all its people and humidity. I am actually in Boston at the moment. I flew home to New Hampshire last Friday, spent Saturday moving into my new apartment in Manchester, then drove down here for a week long training with City Year people from all over the country. It's called Summer Academy.

So, three million years ago I promised you all more of a reason for why I decided to come back to City Year. The most honest reason is probably that committing to grad school scared me. But aside from deciding what I want to do with my life, at the end of last year I felt like I was not done with City Year. That I had a lot left to learn. That I had a lot left to give.

And that was confirmed these last two days. I love the values that City Year is founded on, the care and ideals that the leaders bring. I love feeling like I am part of something bigger than myself. This was a weird realization for me since I always considered myself a very independent person. But there you have it!

Yesterday during training we talked about our presence as leaders. The thing I enjoyed most is the emphasis they put on using silence. There is power in silence that many leaders don't know how to harness and tend to fill up with words. But even just a moment of silence centers a group and centers the leader. We practiced by writing a statement, "I serve because...", and then presenting that statement to a small group. We all practiced using silence and our presence with a group. As my new friend Lan would say, good stuff!

The evening session was based on the book, "The Anatomy of Peace". I have not read it, but I am very curious now I don't want to try to explain it because my tired brain will not do it justice but I'll let you know after I read it. In short it is the idea of interacting with people from a Heart at Peace not a Heart at War and seeing others and People not Objects. Also good stuff.

So that is why I came back to City Year. With all its flaws and the frustrating times I had last year, being around a group of people committed enough to teach and live these ideas is good for me. I am learning, I am putting into practice a lot of things I learned during college, and hopefully I am teaching what I can. I came back to City Year because there is no other place for me at this moment where I can practice and screw up and keep trying the ideals that I hold in my heart. I am glad that I am here.

Tonight the CEO of City Year talked to the group. It was inspirational on so many levels; I came out of it feeling like a sugar-hyped, sleep-deprived, twelve-year-old at a sleep over with her best friends, if you know what I mean :) But he left us with this. City Year has a motto, "Give a year. Change the world." Micheal Brown challenged us in the next twenty years to grow. "Give a year. Change the universe". Heck yea!