Volunteering at Mother Seton Academy

I volunteer two Fridays a month after school at Mother Seton Academy, a middle school serving inner city kids. The wonderful thing about Mother Seton if that if it wasn’t for this school, many of these kids wouldn’t have a decent school to go to. Many of the kids come from troubled homes, many are the result of teenage pregnancies, or their parent(s) have problems with drugs. Before volunteering I had a lot of ideas of what the kids might be like. I had heard, and one of the reasons I chose to volunteer at Mother Seton, was that the kids are wonderful and fun, but I was still concerned that I would say accidentally something that would hit an emotional spot for my buddy and not know how to handle it. Being from the northeast corner of Connecticut, there is very little exposure to people of different race and background. Most children in Connecticut have two parents, a backyard complete with a swing set, and have the benefit of great schooling. I came to Baltimore searching for those that were different than me, which is another reason why volunteering at Mother Seton was so attractive to me. I can compare myself to Rawiri in The Whale Rider in the way that he had everything he needed in Wauranga, but still felt the need to branch out and see other people and places. When I was applying for colleges, I didn’t even look at any schools in Connecticut because I knew that, like Rawiri, I needed to leave my safe place and take a little risk at a place where I knew no one and no one knew me.
From what was discussed before volunteering I had expected to be partners with a child who was quiet and needy for attention, quite to the contrary she was almost too involved with her friends to even really talk to me! This goes to show how few things in life are ever how you expect them to be. During the first day of volunteering it was hard to hear above all the children’s laughter. I have never seen a group of college boys enjoy themselves so much with middle schoolers. Unlike what I expected, none of these kids seemed needy, or quiet, most of them couldn’t stop laughing or cracking jokes to even complete the icebreaker game our coordinator had so aptly organized. Overall I learned that these children, even if they were from broken homes or troubled neighborhoods, are still having great childhoods, just like I had growing up in a completely different environment. I also can’t help but wonder if the reason why they are so happy at Mother Seton is because it is the only safe haven they have. Nevertheless, the kids are always polite, courteous, and bursting with energy.
One major connection I found with the reading and my volunteer experience was how the children’s background is similar to the birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek in The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The children’s backgrounds are like a weight they carry around, similar to how Georgiana’s birthmark became to her once she learned how her husband shuttered at it. If we were to remove either of these things from the, however, they wouldn’t be the same. It’s kind of like describing how we are defined by our imperfections, and without them, we cease to be the same being, as we see in the ending of Hawthorne’s story. The kids at Mother Seton have been molded and shaped by their surroundings, making them the people they are today, giving them a tough skin and never-ending smile. Hopefully, one day they will be able to look back and realize how much their hardships have influenced them, and look on them as a blessing rather than a curse.