POSITIVITY AND SERVICE

Monica Kaplan

For my AmeriCorps service, I tutor in a public school, and I work with a myriad of people. Positivity and being optimistic is an essential part of the job, which has transferred to my personal life, and a shift in my paradigm. This shift has taught me literally that the world does not revolve around me.

On a typical day, not too long ago, I came to the realization that my perception has been one-dimensional. Essentially, I learned that the majority of the time the energy that is brought into a conversation between two or more people is not solely on my
shoulders. Two ordinary events occurred on one particular day, and unexpectedly became a life lesson on optimism and service.

One was a conversation with a teacher, who I never really spoke to before. Prior to AmeriCorps, I would have automatically believed she did not like me, thought I was nuisance, or
something of the like. Then in a serendipitous moment, she and I were in the same room, and we started talking. We ended up having a real, in-depth conversation that lasted about an hour; one that may not had happened if I allowed my presumptions to interfere. Ultimately, I heard a story about a survivor, who has grace and an incredible inner strength to persevere.

On that same day, a fleeting thought managed to stick itself to the forefront of my mind. I was in a classroom’s threshold, waiting for my students to transition from recess to join me in a tutoring session, and I was observing how this teacher was interacting with her students.

In the beginning, I was under the impression that she was a teacher who thought very little of her students. Oftentimes, she appeared to talk down to her students. While I was waiting for them, I came to the realization that how she spoke to them and to me was simply her way of speaking.

How she speaks to me is not entirely because of how I converse with her or how I am behaving towards her. At that moment, I choose to look through the optimistic lens. The lens that I looked
through that day, has allowed me to be conscious of how people behave outside of my world. In the past, I interacted with people and assumed that how interactions came about was in effect due to how I spoke to them.

 Individuals are flawed beings. We are imperfect, and whether we had a bad fight that night before, an out of the blue amazing idea, or whatever emotions we are feeling or thinking at
any given time; we subconsciously bring that energy to the present moment and to whatever dialogue is taking place at that instance.

Being optimistic has allowed me to see myself as an
individual, just like any other person.  I am one person having a conversation with another, and I learned that by serving in AmeriCorps.

Authors

Sky Friedlander hails from State College, Pennsylvania.  She attended Maryland Institute College of Art for one year and proceeded to transfer to Penn State University, where she graduated in 2011 with a B.A. in English.  This year she is pleased to call herself a member of the Federal Way AmeriCorps team!

Laura Ingalls is a recent graduate from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. She received her Bachelor's in print journalism and political science with a minor in religion. She moved to Washington in August to join the Federal Way Public Schools AmeriCorps team. Tentatively, she has plans to return to school in order to pursue a teaching degree while she continues to serve her community in any capacity she can.

Monica Kaplan, graduated in May 2009 from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, with a Bachelor of Science degree. I am currently serving with the AmeriCorps Program in the Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS). Volunteering hands and heart to service, changing young minds, and making a difference in the greater scheme of life.

Corporation for National and Community Service

Interested in becoming an Americorps volunteer?

http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/programs/americorps_vista.asp