Today was my last day at Howe Elementary School of Excellence and I was quite surprised by the student’s reactions when we left. While I thought they would be sad, I didn’t think they would be as sad as they were. I had almost every student come up to me and give me a hug, many asking if I could come back and visit. But there were a couple of students that I hadn’t particularly interacted with a lot that were attached to my hip, sobbing because they didn’t want me to leave. This brought me to tears not only because it broke my heart to see these kids so sad but I also wasn’t sure if the tears were because they would actually miss me or because they constantly have people coming in and out of their lives. At such a young age many of them will open up and become attached to people without any reservation and many times this leads to disappointment. When the students asked if I would be coming back, I came to the realization that there was a high likely hood I would never see these kids again and there is a high likely hood today could be the last time I communicate with them. This made me feel that this whole experience was a personal gain, but then I remember that regardless of how long I was there if I even motivated one child, than this experience was a success. And if nothing else than at least I have a better understanding of how the schools are in the inner cities.
Tomorrow is our group’s free day where we will get to explore more of Chicago. I am very interested to see the areas where the people are making a median income rather than the extremes I have been seeing,
Ill tell you about my explorations tomorrow!
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