Written Reflection 3

By: Jordan McCay

As the final weeks of this semester gradually creep upon us, I find myself thinking more and more about the kids at Step By Step. How are their Christmas's going to be? Will they miss us for the month or so that we won't get to see them? Will they even remember us when we get back? And the questions cycle over and over again.

My home boy Darius

I'm really not exaggerating. These kids have truly touched my heart in the short span that I've gotten to see them and play with them and care for them every other week. In the baby room, we each have "our" child. Mine's name is Darius. Any time the little fella doesn't show up, it's like a piece of my heart is shattering.

But the thing is, it doesn't matter if he doesn't show up, because there's always, always, always another kid looking to be loved on and held and played with to keep them happy and content. And in doing so, it makes all of us happy and content. Except when the kids have nasty smelling formula (which really happens more often than not).

Another precious babe, Lay Lay

I suppose it's kind of silly of me to wonder if a two or three month old child will remember me. At that point in time they don't really know anyone outside of their mother. Nevertheless, as I sit and play with Darius all the live-long day and he smiles up at me and looks with those big, blue eyes, I can't help but wonder if there really is something in those kids that helps them sense a sort of familiarity. Either way, it's hard to just dismiss the idea out of hand.

Furthermore, the more weeks I stay with Step By Step, the more I notice the moms have really opened up and are all so, so kind. Not one fails to put a smile on their face. And it's wonderful to see that they've all formed such strong friendships. It makes me happy when a mom who's already dropped off their child ends up coming back to the room, not to check on her kid, but because she's busy chatting with another one of the mom's or even carrying the other mom's child.

The next Step By Step I go to will be my last for the semester, but that doesn't mean it will be my last ever. I fully plan on going back in the spring, during my sophomore year, and any possible time I'm able to help out with this wonderful program, so deeply have they touched and sparked a fire in me for service.

TED Talk Analysis

TED Talk Analysis

Jordan McCay

For my analysis of a TED talk, I chose Mia Birdsong's "The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn't True" that was given in May 2015. Mia's talk relates very much to the Step By Step organization in that many of the single mothers and their children are currently experiencing poverty. However, as Mia describes in her talk, this situation does not make them weak. In fact, it only fully displays their strong will and strength of character. They are "broke, but not broken."

Out of all of the TED talks I've watched, I can honestly say that this one struck me as the most genuine in both her feelings for the topic and her quality of conversation. Mia's passion for her topic and her closeness with it was highly evident in her presentation. This was a true showcase of the master within. Her stories, not only about herself, but of people living in the poverty she once was in too, struck deep. It was hard not to become emotional upon hearing of the resilience of these people. As Mia mentioned in her presentation, society has a very nasty habit of trying to demonize poor people. By sharing these stories with the audience, Mia was able to break through some of that and have them be seen as the equivalent human beings they should be. Along with these stories, Mia showed pictures of the people she was discussing, thus providing a multi sensory experience for the audience.

One of Mia's main points in her presentation

Another cool thing about this TED talk was that I learned of a place called Silicon Valley. It's been a starting point for many companies and doesn't judge based on a person's wealth or lack thereof it. I just though it was neat that somewhere like that exists. It gives one hope that in the near future there will be many places like this, where ideas are valued for their merit rather than the monetary value of their creator.

In a way, I think Mia's presentation was low-key jaw-dropping throughout the entire presentation, but especially as she firmly established the value of poor people in society and gently berated the rest of society for treating them so harshly. I suppose it was so jaw-dropping because she talks in such a way that's both light-hearted (so you don't expect such passion and ferocity to come from her) and intense all at once. Mia's light-heartedness also shown through the humor she incorporated into the presentation, which worked as she was joking with a sense of familiarity and created a sense of companionship with the audience, as well as adding to her genuine nature.

In the end, I was surprised that the speech was a little over 15 minutes long (under that 18 minute rule, of course), because it had felt so short in such a good way. I was absolutely enraptured with her and was with her the entire time. Her ability to stay in her lane and connect everything back to her main point was impressive. I think Mia's TED talk was highly effective and served her purpose: getting the populace to consider poor people in a new light and looking to them as useful resources. I feel like I, too, gained a new perspective by watching this, and I encourage anyone reading this post to also take a look into it. It's well worth those 15 minutes.

Written Reflection 1 -- The First Two Weeks

As my title suggests, I've gone to serve at Step By Step for two weeks now, and this past week was even more fun, exciting, and even a little bit more overwhelming than the first. It started off slow. Once again, I was in the baby room, and we had about 6 or 7 volunteers. It was the perfect amount... for the previous week's number of children. Two babies were dropped off at the beginning and here was a large lull before we got another, putting us into a false sense of security and having us joke around that we would be fighting over who got to hold the ones we had. Not too long after, we were hit full force by wave after wave of incoming baby: a tidal wave of cute.

The baby I watched napped for a solid 30

I suppose that it would have been even more frightening if we hadn't also been hit by a wave of volunteers coming to our rescue (and we needed them... the babies may have outnumbered the initial volunteers 2:1). For every extra baby that came into our room, another volunteer would magically appear to come and save the day so everyone could focus all of their attention onto one child. If you've ever worked with babies, you know that this is what's needed. And our advisors did know this. 

Our fearless leader, Tanya Torp

That's one of the things I've noticed and loved about Step By Step. The people in charge are so well-informed and knows exactly what to do and when to do it in order to maximize the effectiveness of everyone's work and help the mothers in the best way possible. They know how to provide care in more than just the obvious ways. This efficiency makes accomplishing their mission even easier. 

And what is that mission? Of course, it's to provide care and love for single mother's as they try and get through life when they might have no one else to help them get through it. Step By Step helps single mothers escape the clenched fists of poverty and even works to reduce the stigma against single mothers in our society. From what I've seen, it's working.

Initial Reflection

Initial Reflection -- Step By Step

Volunteering has always held a special place in my heart. Volunteering that involves children makes it even more dear. Maybe it's the added pressure of knowing that you're influencing those children with everything you do or that you're impacting them so heavily, but it just adds to the depth of the service for me. Working with children also just provides this light, no matter if you're performing a service or if you're just passing through a park, that provides this energy and love and warmth throughout the body.

I came in to CIS a little wary. English classes have never been my strong suit. However, my opinion was instantly changed upon hearing that we would be participating in service-learning. My excitement grew even further seeing that some of the organizations we were working with involved children, and I was lucky enough to get my first choice with Step By Step.

Step By Step is a wonderful organization that currently helps out around 120 single mothers and over 300 children. They meet every other Thursday night and, while volunteers like myself watch the children, the single mothers are put into groups and counseled and loved on. Step By Step provides guidance and helps these women empower themselves by giving them a foot forward and a helping hand where they previously didn't have one. So, contrary to my prior belief, Step By Step is a program more so for the mother's than for the children. And what a successful program it is. 

I went to my first meeting two Thursdays ago and it met every positive expectation I'd had and then some. That particular time, I was so pumped to have the privilege to work with the smallest of the children. That's right: babies. One even fell asleep in my arms for a solid half hour. How much more therapeutic can you get? Talking to the moms both before and afterwards was also a lovely experience. You could tell just from their demeanor and something about their eyes that they had been through a lot, but the love for their child shone through the most, and it was heartwarming. 

I can't wait to go back this week and see what Step By Step has in store for everyone. I'm hoping as we go along that I can maybe make some better connections with the mothers or just get to talk with them more and know some of their stories. Either way, I know that I'm going to benefit largely from this service, and from more than just getting to hold babies for two and a half hours (but c'mon... taking care of babies is still pretty awesome).