O'Bryant

The Writer's Room has honestly been one of the best experiences that I have had. I don't know, but I am so astonished by how abrupt the change is when you go from Northeastern to O'Bryant ever week. You would not even believe that you were in the same state. Northeastern has this prim and proper façade that it keeps up (even though we are aware of the many demons this school has in its closet from I.C.E to BPS). Then you go to O'Bryant and you see students on the opposite end of the spectrum trying really hard to fight for their futures (or for others slowly giving up on themselves and their futures). I honestly feel as if this experience allows for us to put into perspective the opportunities that we have here at Northeastern. I was working with a kid yesterday and I heard her and her group of friend say that they basically saw it as impossible to get into Northeastern so that they were going to shoot lower. That hit me because it is so easy to complain about being here when you are suffocating under a myriad of work, exams and assignments, but in the grander scheme of things the ability to be here is a privilege which we can utilize and really harness for the resources it has to offer, or just ride it like a wave (lol).

Also, what I particularly have loved about working with these kids and working at O'Bryant in general is being the majority in the room. (I know here goes the black girl again talking about race). Yes I am, because when you come from a place that is truly diverse (my town back in NJ) where you never felt like the odd one out, to being moved to an environment where you are always the minority it is somewhat a breathe of fresh air to see familiar faces around you. I do not feel like I have to fine tune my accent to be a bit more prim and proper or bring down my loud mouth and sass. It is just nice to feel completely comfortable in a space.

I hope that we as tutors were able to leave a mark, and impact these kids (or at least one kid) in one way or another because we really had the power to be a sponsor of literacy for these children. Whether it was literacy in terms of writing, or literacy in terms of coming to an understanding about themselves or the world at large.