Coffee and Career

Working with kids who come from ridiculously awful backgrounds and who currently live in a detention center because they've made mistakes, well, it can make you think if you let it.

I'm thankful for my life 99.9% of the time, because its awesome, for real.  My current life situation, though accompanied with a little bit of stress and a LOT of debt (or as I like to refer to it, future stress), is a pretty fabulous reminder of just how incredibly privileged I am - and not just because I took a class last semester on privilege.

I get to go to grad school in an AMAZING city full of incredible opportunity. I currently have a field placement that's so fitting I could not write the job description more perfectly myself. The two weekdays I'm not interning I work for the same company I've been working for since I moved to New York - and it allows me to see different schools in different random corners of the city, full of kids from opposite socioeconomic backgrounds (we work with both charter schools and high-end ridiculously expensive private schools attended by Vanderbilts and celebrity children). I feel like I'm drinking in unique experience day in and day out.

Today I was offered a summer internship. My program does not require us to take a summer internship, but I had been looking for something to do here in the city and came across it, and after a few emails, a phone interview, and an in-person interview today, this amazing opportunity was extended to me. This opportunity is INCREDIBLE, if I take it (which I'm almost positive I'll do - just working on the not-having-a-paying-job aspect), I'll be working for the Kings County District Attorney's Office Victims Unit. I'd spend my summer being trained in domestic violence from the legal end and how to navigate that as a social worker.  I'd get to counsel victims of domestic violence while connecting them to services that can help them as they make decisions about their next steps. I'll also be mediating between victims and lawyers, trying to form common goals. Cool huh (plus, ya'll think there might be any adorable single boy interns on the legal side?)

This opportunity is HUGE, and it reminded me that I am SO thankful for the education I've been allowed, solely by grace, to receive  - and I'm thankful God has allowed me to use those skills to help others. I cannot believe the amazing ways he lets me be a part of his plan, and I hope I never lose sight of that. In the end, it's all for him, and without him, I would not be able to have these chances in the first place.

I am also thankful for free coffee. This morning I got an email from Starbucks for a free macchiatto - hazelnut or caramel - to promote their new hazelnut macchiatos.  I stopped to enjoy on my way out of my interview, and it was yummy :) My stomach problems have made me limit my coffee lately, so it had been a while since I'd had some good sweet coffee. Worth the wait.

And they spelled my name right!!!