In my own little corner

I am such a morning person. After the unavoidable thirty seconds of a groaning desire to go back to sleep after my alarm goes off, I am ready to go; singing Christmas songs in the shower and cheerfully tossing orange slices and trail mix in little baggies for lunch. I am that housemate that annoyingly tries to chat about politics and injustice before you have had your coffee.

I love my walk to the metro station in the morning. The sun is just barely coming out and the world is waking up with me. The man at the BP is having a smoke break outside and halfheartedly waves at me. I like seeing the people at the hospital by the station heading to work, getting off work...

I love the metro ride. When you come from a place with no reliable public transportation, the metro is as magical as the Hogwarts Express. I like listening to bits and pieces of other peoples' conversation. I love it when my boy calls me to say good morning as the metro glides past Busch Stadium, even though it is five in the morning in Seattle. Most of all, I love the Mississippi. I love seeing it all decked out in working boats and barges. I love looking down through the window as we speed over the bridge at the water. On the greater surface, the river looks like any dark, wide river. But when you look down into it, it is murky and brown. Muddy, like a mocha latte. It is Willy Wonka's chocolate stream. The Mississippi has so much personality. It moves so slowly and patiently, but it is strong. When you look at where its eddies churn angrily around the supports of the bridge, you get a peek at the contemplative force that is driving this water. It looks like the song “Old Man, River” sounds. Slow, powerful, and deep. I'm not much for cliches, but I'd buy that this river is the soul of the midwest.

My favorite part of my morning, however, is when the metro pulls into the 5^th and Missouri (pronounced Missour-uh by the metro driver) station in East St. Louis and I walk the 10 minute walk to my school.

I love that the sun is fully out by now, but it is still the coolness of the morning. I love walking past the buildings, from the somewhat well-kept federal buildings like the post-office, to the abandoned buildings, missing their second stories and shrouded in charcoal and broken glass from who-knows-what. I love passing by the small daycare as women (sometimes young girls) drop off their babies.

I love rounding the corner on MLK blvd and seeing the quiet concrete silhouette of Vincent Gray Academy there in front of me. I love unlocking the locks on the door (I am always the first person there), frantically pressing the code into the alarm box (new phobia), and making my way to the little, yellow and dark green painted classroom, tucked away in the rear of the building, that is my classroom. Brand new, created out of two storage areas, just for me. I unlock my door, turn on my fans, write my Grammar 1 exercises in blue on the board and sit down at my desk and listen to the kind of music my students would never forgive me for listening to (I will let your imaginations play with that one. Hint: Celine Dion and Justin Bieber are both probable.)

I grab coffee from the staff room and copy some worksheets while I am at it (because nothing says professional-adult-teacher like a thermos full of black coffee and a stack of newly copied Maya Angelou poems).

One by one, the staff arrive. There is Fr. Dan, the principal; utterly devoted to the school and the students. Also very strict and somewhat old-fashioned. Miss Lilly, the soul of Vincent Gray, runs the office. She is an amazing woman who isn't afraid to say things like, “Mark you take those headphones off 'fore I rip them off yo' head, Jesus help me.”

There are Miss Barnes (sciences, reading, drug and alcohol awareness), Chris (history and social studies), and Oren (computers).

Sarah, who teaches math and conflict resolution, was the Jesuit Volunteer for VG in 2005-06 and decided to stay on. She has been so great to get to know. The students say we are “just the same” because we both have an affinity for team building activities and inspirational quotes in our classrooms.

Every Friday there is a half day and at 12:30 we have our weekly staff meetings. Lilly goes through every student by name and we talk about their progress, struggles, and any concerns we have about them. I love that each student gets such specific attention. We have also been working on Community Education, which is a new aspect to Vincent Gray. The theme is the issue with the East St. Louis levees, which have just recently been decertified by the Army Corps of Engineers. The students are split into groups with the staff and are each focusing on different aspects of this community issue (i.e the history, past flooding, terminology, political problems, etc.). The students seem very passionate (with a sort of righteous indignation) about the decertification of the levees and the risks that may bring to their community. I am learning the details of this issue right along with the students and it has been very eye opening.

So far I have been having such an amazing time here at Vincent Gray and every Friday afternoon I stumble home feeling like I have zero mental, physical, and emotional energy left at all. In a good way.

Thanks to everyone who inspired me to do this! You know who you are.