Changing Expectations

By Alicia Bachorik, Crossnore

This was our first week of service at Crossnore Children’s Home. It has been one of the most difficult and stretching weeks in terms of needing to be completely flexible and thinking on my feet. Of the three days, none has turned out as expected, and although we came into each day with a plan, each day we've ended up making most things up as we go along.

So far, it’s been easy to leave every afternoon feeling like I’ve failed in what I came to do. But I’ve realized that while there's nothing wrong with coming prepared and having a plan, I need to change my expectations of what I consider a successful day of service. On Wednesday, we played an improv game with a group of the high school students in which three or four people were assigned a scene and randomly chosen emotions. I was uncertain of what their reaction would be, but by the end, each one of them had actively participated at least once.

One student who was a bit hard to read looked over at me after acting in one scene and said, “This is so much fun.” Another took the initiative to provide the setting and assign characters for the final round of the game. This is my new goal - simply to find activities that at least one student enjoys and learns from each day. That's enough to make a day of service valuable.

July 06, 2017