On the Res Again

We've started tutoring at Chemawa again, thank goodness. I continue to feel that college is a very unique, unnatural situation in that I am surrounded by folks my age. There's occasional contact with professors of "another generation," but I spend the majority of my time with 20-somethings. I LOVE the chance to go to Chemawa and get out of my Willamette bubble and age group. I spent Tuesday night at the Family Center, and it was great! There were only five of us to begin: Warner, Patrick, myself, and two students. I did my fair share of poking fun at myself, naming the awkward when it happened, and got a pretty good response. Patrick is a very focused, driven young man. He told me about experience with competing gangs when he was living in Montana, and seemed rightfully proud of himself when he got to the conclusion of the story, a 3.8 GPA last semester. He is a believer in hard work and having goals, and he has a well-developed list of those. Go to college, become an engineer, live on a reservation and help his people. He said he didn't grow up on the reservation, rather, he lived in foster care until his pre-teen years when his aunt and uncle adopted him. He has family all over the western half of the country, and is excited for the time he'll feel ready to start dancing again and really get connected with his ancestors. I could have listened to him all night.

BUT, there was Geometry to do! I think I could tutor math for the rest of my life... it's so fun to find a way to help students "get it," and it's as satisfying as crossword puzzles and logic games for me. Kenny and Blake and I discovered that line segments can be substituted for variables, and then it's just like algebra... awesome. Smart kids, and they obviously want to learn. One young man, I think his name was Willucas, didn't say a word to me all night, but gave me a cookie as he left and said, "See ya next week." Satisfying. Rewarding. Loves it.