"And the moments when my good times start to fade,
You make me smile like the sun,
Fall out of bed, sing like a bird, dizzy in my head,
Just the thought of you can drive me wild,
Oh, you make me smile."
[uncle.kracker]
It was March 2010. I was a few months away from finishing up my associates degree at Montgomery College and trying to figure out where I wanted to go to finish my college career. Ever since we moved I had always said that I wanted to go to Liberty University [anything to get back down south]. But financially things didn't work out.
During the annual family gathering for Easter down with my dad's side of the family the topic of where I was going to continue school came up. My uncle mentioned that I should think about going to George Mason and working as an Resident Assistant for Mason LIFE. This was a program that he helped to initiate many years ago to allow students with intellectual disabilities to have the college experience. So he contacted the director of the program and explained that his niece was interested in being an RA.
Fast forward to May 2010. I had already been in contact with the director of the program and met with her. Then she pointed me to the Senior Resident Advisor, Lmya, for me to have an informal interview with her. I planned to meet her one sunday afternoon. I went to church that morning down in Fairfax with some friends and then went out to lunch afterward.
After getting a little bit lost going from the restaurant back to campus, and then getting lost on campus trying to find out where to park, I eventually found my way to the right dorm building. Nervously, I called Lmya and told her I was out front waiting for her to let me in. She kindly greeted me and we walked to her room. The walls were white and bare. The carpet was blue. The hallway smelled weird. And I had no idea what was in store for me. She introduced me to some of the students and then we had our little "interview". I don't remember much of the actual conversation, but the end result was that I was going to be an RA in this program.
Fast forward again to August 2010. The week before school started we had to be at campus for an orientation. So, my parents helped me move all my stuff to my cozy basement room in uncle and aunt's house, where I would be living for the semester. Monday morning I drove to campus [following the directions my dad had given me] and gave myself plenty of time in case I got lost. With a map in hand I wandered around campus trying to find the right building.
Once I found the room, the first day of orientation week began. The day couldn't have gone any slower. It honestly felt like initiation or something. In this room full of instructors and other RAs, I suddenly felt like a fish out of water. I only knew Lmya and another instructor I met over the summer at a summer camp my cousin attended. We did the typical go around and introduce yourselves, tell us what year you are in school, and an interesting thing about you. Why do people feel the need to know something interesting about you?
We finished the intimidating introductions and split for our group meetings. The small group of RAs came together and we began to plan out the semester. Do you know hard it is to plan a RA work schedule when you are trying to work around six people's school schedule? Talk about crazy.
At the beginning of our time Lmya gave each of us our Residential Housing handbooks. While handing them out she said, "You all might be confused as to why there is a picture of a palm tree on the front of your hand book. Any guesses as to why that is there?" When all the ridiculous answers were given Lmya told us we were stupid [not really..] and said "Have you ever seen a palm tree during a hurricane? When you look on tv, they always show the palm trees swaying and bending like crazy because of the wind, but they have strong roots and never break. This year will be a lot of fun, it will have difficult times, and we will sway and bend around. So
we are team palm tree, we bend but don't break."
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| nationals game || sept 2010 |
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| cooking in Residential Housing |
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| gabe + jenny at the air and space museum |
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| manly men confidently holding purses |
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| jessica + greg (aka elvis) |
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| the girls and I going to Mason Day |
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| spread the word to end the word |
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| they celebrate the end of the semester a little strangely |
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| "hey gabe! i just farted..." |
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| 3D movie at the air and space museum |
The first year of team palm tree (2010-2011) consisted of 10 students and 6 RAs. We were a great family. One of the things we wanted to do as a Residential Housing unit was to do monthly activities. We went to a Nationals game, the air and space museum, national history museum, and did a lot of activities on campus.
But, just when I was getting use to our small family, the next year (2011-2012) our family doubled in size. Instead of having 10 students in 3 dorm rooms, we now had 23 students in 3 dorm rooms and 3 townhouses off campus [but close enough to campus to walk or take the bus]. Because there were more students in residential housing, you guessed it - that meant we needed 13 RAs instead of 6. That year's RA orientation meeting was fun. I thought trying to figure out 6 people's schedule for RA work was difficult. God bless Lmya for dealing with all 13 of us.
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| first dinner together of the 2011-2012 year |
With more people in Residential Housing not only brought more responsibility, but more opportunities for more fun. We went to dance parties the first week of school, went to movies on campus, went to the zoo down in DC, had cookouts at the townhouses, made "Pizza Wednesdays" a weekly tradition, had super bowl parties, went down to DC at night to see all the monuments lit up, went to the Kennedy Center to see a play, and over all enjoyed spending time with each other, even if it meant at 3am when some drunk guy in the building pulled the fire alarm and we all had to wait outside for half an hour in the freezing October night.
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| townhouse get together |
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| townhouse get together |
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| townhouse cook out |
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| zoo |
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| zoo |
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| townhouse cook out |
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| townhouse cook out |
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| zoo |
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| zoo |
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| zoo |
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| Mr. O likes to color in study hall |
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| Mason Madness 2011 |
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| mason madness 2011 |
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| mason madness 2011 |
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| kennedy center |
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| kennedy center |
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| kennedy center |
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| kennedy center |
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| dc at night |
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| dc at night |
The year and a half I spent at Mason and in this program was probably the best year and a half of my life. We all came from different backgrounds and even came from a variety of states. (Ohio, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania) But that didn't stop us from becoming one big, happy family. There were times when we laughed, there were times when we cried, and there were even times when we got angry with one another. But through it all, we knew that we were all here to support each other (we bend, but don't break). I feel like I have known my coworkers my whole life because we developed such strong friendships.
I learned this from first hand experience. There were many nights, before I knew I was sick, when I would be so exhausted that I couldn't make it until the 11pm curfew. So my dear coworker and friend, Jenny, would tell me to "go to bed and not worry about it and she would check and make sure the girls got to bed."
Last March, when we found out I was sick and dad took me home, was one of the hardest days. Not only because we found out I had cancer, but because I knew I had to take a medical withdrawal from school and leave my Mason LIFE family.
Words can not describe how much I love all my coworkers and each and every one of my students. These students are some of the most caring, compassionate people I know. Because I didn't want them to worry about me, they were not told all the specifics of what was happening. They just knew that I was really sick and needed to be home with my family to recover. But they didn't need to know all the specifics in order to be caring and compassionate.
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| get well note from a student |
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| get well notes on our RA board from coworkers and students |
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| a whole stack of get well notes from all the students in Mason LIFE |
Sometimes I wonder why I even went to Mason because it definitely wasn't my first choice. But God knew why. Before the world began, God knew that I was going to get sick. He knew that I would be away (from my family) at college when I was sick and He knew that I needed a second family to take care of me.
I do not regret that year and a half of my college career. If anything, during this time God showed me what vocation to pursue in life. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher and get my degree in elementary education. But little did I know that I would add special education to that degree also. I don't know if that would have happened if I hadn't been apart of this program.
As this new school semester is starting, I am torn because part of me wishes I was back on campus with them. However, God has called me in a different direction. But Team Palm Tree will always hold a special place in my heart. Some of us have graduated, some of us are graduating this year, some of us aren't in program anymore, but all of us can say that we were part of Team Palm Tree.
At the end of the first year, I made a
slideshow for Residential Housing class to highlight our year. Enjoy.
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| kennedy center |
