The Midnight Run

Last night around 8:00 pm, I gathered at the Rutherford Campus chapel along with about 13 other students to help with the Midnight Run. Some faces were familiar, some were not, but I'd like to discuss the event because it left such a lasting impression on me. The 14 of us spent two hours sorting through clothes, making sandwiches / snack bags, and loading everything onto a Felician College shuttle. After everything seemed to be in place we piled onto the shuttle bus and headed off to New York City to give away clothing, food, shoes, and toiletries to the homeless.

Our first two stops only had two or three people, but our third, and final stop of the evening had several. We piled off the shuttle taking boxes of toiletries, and coolers of hot coffee and homemade turkey noodle soup, and grape juice. People lined up outside the shuttle for clothing, socks, underwear, and shoes. Three people (+ Father Tom) stayed on the shuttle to hand out goods. The rest of us talked to the people to find out what they needed. I, along with Penny - another RA, helped dole out soup into cups for people. I must have given out 80 cups of soup and people kept coming back for more. It was a cold rainy night. I'm sure the coffee and soup helped keep people warm.

What amazed me most about the experience is that, honestly, most of the people only took what they needed. If they had good shoes on, they didn't ask for shoes. The other thing I noticed, since I was on soup detail, was that a lot of people only wanted a half a cup. I asked them why and they said they could only eat a half a cup. The comment reminded me of a story I read about Jewish people that were liberated from the concentration camps: when a person has had very little, or barely nourishing food for long periods of time, food in large quantities can make you quite ill. The entire event left me feeling a little warm and fuzzy inside because I really feel like I did something to help somebody. Maybe it wasn't a lasting impression. Maybe those people won't remember me, but it doesn't matter. The important thing is that they remember that somebody was kind to them when they were down on their luck.

When I got back to campus last night, I sat down outside the dorms at the top of the stairs. I tried to imagine what it would be like to not be able to go in. Sure I was sheltered from the rain and it was cold. I imagined what it would be like to have to sleep out there on the ground. I sat there for about thirty minutes until I just absolutely couldn't sit there anymore. Thankfully I have the luxury of a warm bed and blankets, and won't be sleeping at the top of the stairs in front of some church in New York City tonight. My heart and prayers go out to those who are, though.

RA Training and Classes

It's been a busy few weeks so I'll go ahead and tackle everything that's happened recently.

RA Training started on August 21st. The first day was mostly a "what to expect" meeting. It was pretty informative. We also did an informative scavenger hunt in the rain. It had us running all over campus and finding out information about not only our teammates but about security, administration, and the campus itself.

The following day we went to a Ropes Course that was really difficult for me but I was so thankful for the support from my RA teammates. I'm absolutely terrified of heights, and the course instructor told us that all she asked us to do was push ourselves past what we thought we were capable of. I decided to try, when the day before I was 100% certain that I wouldn't even try if heights were involved, because I know myself. I made it up a 12 foot ladder and onto a pole before I couldn't make myself climb any higher but at least I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. It felt great to at least make the attempt. I learned a very valuable lesson that day. Usually I'm the supportive person in a team that is the constant voice of "You can do it!" The truth is, with the support of others, I was able to push myself farther than I thought I'd be able to. The day was one huge obstacle course for all of us that forced us to use teamwork, etc. It was a great team-building exercise. I'm happy that I could be a part of it.

The rest of the week was filled with info-sessions about policy, procedure, sexual assault, etc. There were also some fun activities, though, such as a group yoga session, a trip to the park, and walking up to Park Avenue to Ice Cream Charlie's (where I had the sinfully delicious Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Ice Cream). That stuff should be illegal it's so delicious!

My first week of classes was actually just two classes. Philosophy and Literature was a great way to kick off my semester. Abaunza's classes are always fascinating. This is going to be such an interesting class, I can tell already. I'm pretty psyched about this and left wondering.. Why wasn't I a Philosophy major again? Oh, right. I love graphic design also!

Core 400 was what it was supposed to be. It was a class that was instituted to help us integrate the Franciscan Values into our lives: Peace, Respect, Joy, Diversity, Service, Reverence, Compassion. We are required to do 20 hours of community service that's meant to somehow stretch us as a person. I'm doing mine through the Midnight Run. Last week there were no classes on Monday so I got off from Friday - Tuesday. I had Choir, and Cartooning on Wednesday, both of which proved to be what I was expecting - fun and difficult. It's nice to be presented with a challenge this year.

The class I'm most excited about, though, is my Senior Seminar I, which I took for the first time yesterday. I'm so psyched up about all the projects we have that in typical Nyla fashion, I want to tackle them all right this very moment. I wish I could do them all at the same time and not lose my mind or let my GPA drop.