Journal Excerpts October 21: I’ve been thinking about doing a capstone about the workout club. I haven’t found a mentor yet, I’ve asked two teachers to be my mentor, but they are not available after school. Right now I’m thinking of who to ask, I know that it can't be a family member. So I’m thinking of asking a friend who’s in college but I'm not sure if he will be free. This person help me take my body to a whole new level and he continues to be the kind of person I inspire to be. Can I even ask the school principal to be my mentor? It would be interesting to have the principal as my mentor. I’m trying to think of adults that have knowledge of body building. Can I even bring someone outside of school to be my mentor in the school workout room? October 22: I’m thinking of asking my scoutmaster to mentor me, I’ve seen him as a substitute teacher, a couple of times in the school. I haven’t seen him lately as a substitute. I’ve known him since I was a kid. We went camping and training a lot of times. Jan 22: I have a capstone now. I'm doing a capstone about helping the needy. I’m going every weekend to a warehouse. It’s called Journey Home and A Hand Up, They help people who need stuff. It could be food, clothing, furniture, etc. I was really nervous when I first went there. But the people there are nice. The first time I went there, there were only three people that were helping out. My mentor Alison and an elderly woman. I didn’t get the chance to find out what her name was, but she was really strong for her age. I was worried that she might have injured herself when she carries heavy furniture, but she can handle herself. Jan 22: The first day of volunteering, had no idea of what I was getting myself into, all I knew was that I was helping with delivery. It was all new to me and it’s really nerve racking doing something you’ve never done before. It was really physically demanding work because you deliver furniture, towels, etc and we delivered it to their home sometimes they would live on a higher flood in an apartment. The first place we went to, the guy just moved into his new home on the second floor. The hallways were narrow so it was a struggle to move a queen size mattress up the stairs. There was also a couch that we delivered to the guy, and it was one hell of a workout. Well there's a positive side to it, you get a workout and your helping out people which makes all the struggles worth it. My shirt was drenched in sweat by the end of the delivery. I got to know more about my mentor, which was great. I learned that she used to play soccer too when she was in high school and we shared our experiences. She is a really nice person and it was fun to work with her. I’m looking forward to doing more volunteer work. Whenever I go to sign up, for some reason Saturday was always pact with volunteers so I usually do it on Sunday because there's a limited amount to people who can volunteer at a time. I guess Saturday is when people have the most free time. You can volunteer any day, but I couldn’t do it on weekdays because they only deliver in the morning and I have school. Jan 23: Today in class we talked about stuff we have to get completed and I realized that I am way behind on my work, but I’m catching up. If I didn’t find out about Journey Home from a friend, I wouldn’t have been able to catch up as fast. Jan 23: I am so thankful that my friend told me about Journey Home, I really owe him one for it. His school does community service hours for the company. My friend’s school doesn’t have a capstone project, which I’m jealous. I told him about capstone and he told me about it. Jan 26: I did another community service hours this weekend and helped out three people. This week we got a lot of helpers so things went fast. It’s a lot easier and faster if you have a big group helping out. We usually deliver up to two houses at most. Yesterday we delivered to a nice apartment complex, it was so new. It used to be a warehouse but they made it into an apartment. I passed by the apartment before but thought it was some kind of office building, it’s hidden well. I also thought of raising money for their cause, but I still need to talk to Mrs. Boutilier about my idea. I don’t know if they will allow it to happen at school. I talked with the staff that are helping out and they told me what I can donate and what I couldn’t. I’m surprised we couldn’t donate clothing and food. They only take furniture and household items like plates, bed, towels, rugs, etc. We can also donate money and it’s the easiest because it would be hard to find people who would donate furniture, especially in school. I want to know if I can do it at other schools as well. Yesterday I met other high school student who are helping out to get their community service hours. Today I met a senior who needed to finish his community service hours. It’s pretty fun meeting new people but it’s also makes me nervous as well. So far I’ve only met nice people. I met people that came to help from churches, a whole family came yesterday to help out. I’m really glad they came because the stuff the client wanted were heavy stuff. Jan 31: Alison doesn’t come every week because she has to work on some weekends. But I met new people from the organization. I met Sue the second time I volunteered. She was also really nice, she told me more about the organization and she is also interested in my culture. When I told her I was from Thailand, she told me that her daughter was in Thailand not too long ago. She also wanted to visit Thailand and she asked me what’s the best place to go to see beautiful sights. I couldn’t tell her much because I haven’t been to Thailand since I came to America. I can’t remember much of Thailand because I was still a little kid when I came. I met Dave the week after, I didn’t get to know him as well as Sue and Alison, but with him around things were a lot easier. He is a big guy who is also nice, he made things easier. Feb 3: Sunday was the first time we delivered out of Hartford, we went to Vernon. I thought we went to the wrong address, because before this we only delivered in the Hartford area. Sunday was a real struggle, the home we delivered to had a small stairway and it’s also steep. We delivered two heavy dressers and one big couch. My arms were so tired by the end of the delivery. Saturday was also my first time experiencing an error in the system. We received the wrong address and the wrong number. When we went to the address, the guy was puzzled when we told him who we were and what we were there for. Sometimes I don’t always meet new people, I’ve seen people who volunteered again and again. The family from the church came back to help out again Sunday. A woman who used to be homeless herself came to help out, she was there Saturday and Sunday. It’s a good feeling to see people like her, she’s returning the help that she got to someone else. February 25: For the past three weeks, I have been trying to organize a group to go and help out. My plans didn’t go as expected, on the days people were available, deliveries and pick up were either called due to weather or there were no clients. The first week Jacky was going to volunteer with me, but the weather was bad and I got an email saying the delivery was canceled. February 28: This weekend I’m planning on doing it again with Jacky. Jacky is such a good friend, she still is willing to help me even with all those happening in the past weeks. March 2: yesterday, Sunday delivery was canceled again. It was unfortunate that Jacky couldn’t make it this weekend, But it’s ok. Saturday we had three deliveries which was unusual. Alan, our driver is really amazing. The guy is like 6’5 and is really strong. I would compare him to Hercules, I remember a time when me and someone else was carrying this heavy dresser. It took me and someone else to carry a heavy dresser and Alan just lifted it like it was nothing. You would assume that a guy that big wouldn’t be much of a runner because he is big and strong, but last Saturday I found out that he does marathons. I really was shocked, he did have nice calves but I thought it was from weight lifting or something. Alan is a guy that would stand out in a crowd. He wears a shirt that looks like it’s a size smaller than him and he wore shorts. It’s near the end of winter but it’s still pretty cold, but the guy wore shorts at 10 am in the morning. I was wearing a cosy hat, coat, gloves, long pants and shirt, with boots and I was still cold. You can see his underwear every time he bends down to lift some furniture. I would have frozen to death, if I had worn what he wore. March 3: I’m thinking of expanding my area of contact, I’ll probably ask some of my friends but I want the majority of people volunteering to be from this school. March 16: This weekend I didn’t do my capstone because of the coronavirus, I'm pretty sure most of the people in my school canceled their capstone. Last week was my first week that I took a group to go volunteering. It was unexpected because two days before Friday I checked the schedule and it didn’t show it being available. I was actually planning to go help Clevon with his capstone, but Friday afternoon Alison emailed me asking if I was available to go on Saturday, because the group that reserved for Saturday canceled last second. I asked Jacky if she wanted to go and she said yeah. The timing was perfect because Clevon’s capstone starts at 7 and ends at 8, while mine starts at 10 and ends at 1. On the way to Clevon’s capstone, I asked Ehta if he wanted to come help, he said yeah so I told him the address of where we were meeting up. Ehta lives in East Hartford so he didn’t have to go the far. Clevon’s place was in East Hartford. After we were done with Clevon’s capstone, we chilled out in Dunkin for awhile because my capstone is still another hour. Ehta also came to help out my capstone, Another one of my friends came to help me out. He was the one who told me about Journey Home and A Hand Up. There was a lot of stuff on the first delivery, I think there were two or three dressers, a book shelf, and few chairs. It was just our group that helped out, maybe it was because it was unexpected. The second delivery was a lot easier, the client didn’t want much so it was a breeze. We came back to the storage building to unpack all the unwanted furniture in the truck. After we were done Alison came by and for the first few seconds I did not recognize her because it's been awhile since I last saw her (sorry Alison) . We only communicated through emails. March 30: School has changed because of Covid 19, now we have online classes. Lucky I completed my 15 hour minimum, although people at Journey home still do deliveries, now there's less people. This epidemic is really affecting the homeless. I’ve done some research about the effect of Covid 19 on the community. It said that the people who are most affected are the people with lower income, but there are organizations in the U.S. that are still helping out people who are less fortunate. This is all thanks to Alison for giving me the research ideas that I’ve learned how this impacted our community. May 4: It’s been crazy, I think that no one was prepared for this kind of event. I didn’t, I thought this would be over in a few weeks or a month or two, but it just kept getting worse. At least this will be remembered in history, it’s unusual to think that. Never thought I would be living through one of a historical event. First it was the school shooting, now it's a pandemic. Learning from school isn’t difficult for me but I know that some people find it easier for them to have teachers around to guide them. Yesterday I went to pick up compost with my mom and our car broke down. Luckily my mom got it working again with the help of some passerby. It was really hot yesterday to do gardening. I’ve gotten whiter since I've been inside most of the time and now that I finally get to go outside more, I get sunburned more easily. My arms got noticeably darker. This is the whitest I’ll ever get in my lifetime. I never thought I would miss school but I do now. I miss my friends the most and my teachers too. My Capstone hasn't been happening as much. I can’t make a group anymore but at least I had one group which I’m thankful for. I know that they are still doing deliveries but with less people. I think it’s only the staff that has been doing deliveries. I feel bad that I can’t help out more. Life used to be uneventful and now we are finally getting some action, kinda. I can’t say much since I usually stay home. I've noticed some chances of myself, I’m less fit because I rarely exercise now. It’s not fun when you are doing it alone, it feels like work. My soccer skill has definitely dropped, I haven't touched a soccer ball in months. I’m less flexible due to my laziness. All in all, I’m less active since we were told to stay inside. I’m also less motivated. |