Laura's Story: "...learning about yourself, good or bad, is never easy."

Laura Coonrod serves as a TechMission Corps Member at Circle Urban Ministries in Chicago, Illinois

Entering into AmeriCorps I had the mindset and intent to serve the site where I was placed.  I was joining a new after-school program, and I was going to be in the lives of inner-city students consistently, hoping to serve them and teach them to serve.  Beginning the fall after graduating from college, I was a twenty-two year old with only a few weeks of urban experience, serving with the knowledge that going home was at the end of my weeks in that temporary setting.  This time things were different.  When I said yes to AmeriCorp, I said yes to learning to find this urban inner city my home, not just a temporary place of service.  Looking back at my year of service there is impact to be seen.  The impact that I see isn’t necessarily the impact I have had on my site, although I know that is there, but rather what I see is the impact my site and year of service has had on me. 

I have been impacted as an individual by the people and experiences I have found to be a part of my life here.  I would like to be able to say that coming to this place through AmeriCorps was an easy journey of learning about myself, a new culture, life after college, etc.  However, I want to be honest.  This year has been one the hardest most stretching years in my life thus far. Why?  Because I find that learning about yourself, good or bad, is never easy.

I found myself in the midst of a new city, a new culture, a new community, a new job, and I found myself overwhelmed.  Although I felt all of these things they didn’t stop the reality of my job, as an after-school teacher, from beginning.  I found myself thrown into a leadership position overseeing/facilitating seventeen 3^rd-5^th graders. Through these young people I have been taught.  Whether they know it or not they have taught be about having confidence.  They have taught be about love and care, they have taught me about fighting and forgiveness, they have taught me about teaching.  They have taught me an abundance.  I can easily say that our classroom is a different place today than it was at the beginning of the year because of the things we have learned about one another, the respect we have gained for one another.

My boss and the staff I work closely with have watched me and parented me through these new experiences.  They have spoken aloud to me the things they see in me that need growth, and they have also encouraged me in the parts of me that are strong. I continue to learn through daily interaction with them about serving and my heart towards each thing that service involves.  I have been loved and challenged daily by my co-workers. 

This community and culture have given me a wider view of the world, a wider grasp of the need we have for each other, a deeper desire to see communities and cultures come together to give back, to challenge and love each other towards wholeness.  I came to serve and yet I have found myself served, and I am more whole because of it.  I would not be who I am today without this year of service through AmeriCorps, because through it I have been put in a place that has not only allowed me to serve and learn, but has created a space for me to be taught and served. 

Yes, the year has been full, and hard, but that doesn’t outweigh the joy and reward that has been given as well.  I am a more confident person, a person who believes that service should always be a part of living, because in serving you might just find yourself being served.  And although I believe service is something to learn, I believe being served is also a position we need to learn as well.  In being served we learn how to receive, giving us a better understanding and a more compassionate spirit towards the people we will serve. 

I have been at my site for about one year, and I know there have been lessons learned, and I know there are more to learn, (maybe that’s why I’m doing AmeriCorps a second year) but I am grateful.  Even now as I write I hear my name from kids voices in the hall, and I love that it’s my job to join with them in their day.  They bring me so much life, and each day is a new day to learn and serve together.