They Grow So Fast!

I've got probably 8 weeks or less left at my literacy job, which is kind of sad and kind of a relief all at the same time. We're taking applications up until the beginning of July, as D/B wants to bring a new person on board by the middle of the month to have them in training for a couple of weeks before I leave. I warned her not to take somebody just because we had only a few choices, but I doubt she'll listen to me. That's how we ended up with Stinky Hippie--fear that there would be no other choice. Up until today we had two applications--a rocket scientist and a waiter. I'm not kidding.

But today one of our tutors put in for the job, and it was a weird and a nice moment all at the same time. Danielle was one of the first tutors I ever brought into the program. I remember her because I met her for lunch when she was just a freshman. She was full of energy and just...ideologically fired up in the kind of naive way that makes old people roll their eyes. But she wasn't the kind to just blather on about how McDonald's was ruining America--it was more the kind of pre-activist who goes on about how the water is so damned polluted and something really ought to be done about it. I guess she didn't have that kind of whiny psuedo-intellectualism that so often comes with kids her age who claim to be interested in making a difference but who are only interested in looking politically modern. She just wanted to roll up her sleeves.

She didn't have that attitude of "What are you going to give me?" I hate that attitude. She just wanted to go to work. She came into my program wanting to help somebody and maybe figure out what this nonprofit business was all about. And work she did. She worked for my program, she became the President of her university's branch of the Sierra Club for a while, she went home and worked on some chapter of Oceana (I think) which targets mercury poisoning in water (among other things). She called me when she was getting ready to leave for the summer and gave me her home county information, asking if I could connect her with anybody doing literacy stuff back home. I asked her to total her hours up for me and she won a President's Volunteer Service Award last year. I sent a little card to her home address back in Maryland telling her how proud I was of her and how she really deserved the award, mainly because she was smart enough to realize that results aren't instantaneous--they have to be worked for. Apparently she framed the card next to her award. I keep forgetting how much people like that shit.

The award was on her resume, which made me smile. Who knew she'd end up listing the award I got her nominated for as proof to me that she'd be good at the job? It seemed like some kind of cosmic grin. There are still some concerns with her. She's going into her senior year, and it's unlikely she'd want to stick around WV after she's done. So odds are good D/B would have to find another assistant in a year's time. Hell, it took me a whole year before I even really knew what I was doing. She's also still in school, and it can be tough to go to school and work this job. I did it. But I'm thirty and she's twenty. I was upfront with her about the concerns that would come up in the interview, and I told her to think about what her response would be to them if she wanted to continue pursuing this job. I think that's fair. That's what my hiring committee told me up front. It made a world of difference. She pumped me for information about grad school, which I told her all about in full biased glory. We talked about other options like Americorps in case she wanted some kind of transition work after her bachelor's degree.

But nonetheless, I've always felt a little more affinity to Danielle than any of my other tutors. I remember her as a wide-eyed freshman and how she talked a mile a minute. Today she was going into her senior year with a nice Florida tan and quite a bit of experience under her belt, really. When I first met her, she talked about failing one of her English classes. She is now a President's scholar at our school and she has a 4.0. She graduates in English, by the way. She says that working in nonprofit helped her focus on doing well in her own life. I understand that in a way that's kind of hard to put into words. It really does help you hone in on things. She's like my little kid nonprofit sister or something.

I'm really proud of her.

I don't know if she'll get the job, or if after she thinks over the bulk of what we talked about she'll even want it anymore. But I'm so proud of her. It would kind of be a nice little complete circle to hand off the reins to her. She'll still end up in nonprofit whatever the outcome, though. It's infected her blood like it has mine. I may be going off to be a full time university teacher, or whatever, but I'm still going to be snuffing around the edges of nonprofit, I'm sure. So will she. Maybe we'll even end up working on something together. But it feels really good to be a part of her civic evolution.

-- Virgil