Friday, August 7, 2015

Formidable Plans; Tricky Clauses; The Land of Super Heros

I had a class in 7th grade, taught by Mrs. Smith, called College Prep. The class's crux was rather ambitious: have each student plan out the next decade of their life. For most of us, projecting a length of time almost equal to how long we've already lived (I was 13 at the time) seemed daunting, but we trudged along. Some of us finished. 

My plan was this:
  • Bowl four years at Varsity level in high school
  • Attend Saginaw Valley State University and bowl for them (they were #2 in the country when I attended)
  • After two years, transfer to the University of Michigan and get an in-major GPA of 4.0
  • Upon graduating, join the Peace Corps
This plan took me up until I was about 24. And somehow (being fully aware of the difficulty of achieving what one sets out to do) I was able to do every single part of that plan.
A hard-earned smile
The thirteen-year-old in me has been patting himself on the back for some time now, and stopped when I reminded him of something he overlooked, something he took for granted: there was no mentioning of finishing Peace Corps.

Exactly two weeks ago, I decided to leave Peace Corps early--what in PC lingo is called, rather dramatically, Early Termination.

Every volunteer who ETs has a unique reason for doing so--a job elsewhere; urgent medical problems; dissatisfaction with work; pressing family concerns; etc--and the TL;DR version of my reasoning was I felt I could make better use of these next two years elsewhere. The formula that decides what I undertake is basically this: am I helping the largest amount of people I can in a way that utilizes my greatest strengths? And in Moldova, for myriad reasons, the formula popped out no.

Leaving was an easy decision to make but hard to carry out. Saying goodbye to a person I now consider one of my best friends brought us both to tears. But she, and everyone else I care deeply for, gave the support that helped make the ET process manageable.


People I'll truly miss

And now I'm off to NY--Queens to be exact. Enough can't be said of the two cousins I have who've opened their house, allowing me to pursue an opportunity that I feel passes my test.

And this is where the Super Hero Supply Co. comes in. It's the ostensible name of a tutoring center I've accepted an intern position at (http://826nyc.org/). Located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, it offers after-school tutoring, creative writing workshops, field trips, and college-readiness classes, all 100% free of charge. It's part of a network of 826 locations throughout the country that offer the same. The one in Boston is a Bigfoot Research Center. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, it's Robot Repair & Supply. Seattle has the Bureau of Fearless Ideas. Valencia, CA, --the 826 that started it all--peddles its Pirate Supplies to aspiring buccaneers.


For 826MI's Halloween party, I was Peter Rabbit
Starting next month, I'll be helping with the after-school tutoring and writing-specific aspects of 826NYC's programs. It's safe to say I'm nervous, but it's also safe to say that nervousness accompanied the moments when I embarked on accomplishing those things I set out to do in Mrs. Smith's College Prep class. It's just this time there's no long-term plan. But I'm okay with that. I'll spare us all and not invoke cliches. For now, I'll focus on readying myself for the Big Apple.

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