We All Need A Little Love

There’s something utterly captivating about humility; yet, it’s such a tricky concept that if one recognizes it can easily be lost in the acknowledgement. I grew up in poverty, surrounded by people that had little to no formal education.  As I grew up and made it out of the barrio and entered a world opened to me by education I had to face many first-time experiences- unknown to the world where I came from.  My first post job took me to the Ritz-Carlton and I remember thinking how much happier I would be speaking with the workers in the kitchen.  In the Monarch Bay Courtyard, I shuffled around people who asked me about my parent’s political views or if I was daughter of the Duarte’s who founded the city. While I went around meeting people whose costume jewelry was probably the real thing, I heard my native tongue occasionally making its way as the kitchen door opened and closed.

I have never been comfortable in luxury, I prefer humble gatherings and people too.  It’s funny because I always saw myself working at a school helping students that were like me immigrants, English being their second language, living in the hood… I knew how I could reach these kids.  Yet, God has a funny sense of humor and I was to take a job at a school were the students that I serve the majority are designer-wearing, middle class, white kids.  I was thinking, “God, what in the world am I going to teach students that come from households where during quarantine they don’t need to worry about having internet access, a computer or even a private space to do their work – they have it all materially speaking?”  Those firsts days I struggled shifting from my humble bubble into a charter at a location where for the most part economics is not an issue.  Seventy percent of my students come from households where parents have gone to college.

Yet, as I have fought my own battles trying to feel more comfortable with all types of people, I see that in the end we are human beings with the same needs for love.  The majority of the students that I work with come to us because they have been bullied or because they have mental illnesses that prevent them from functioning at a normal school.  I see kids with deep levels of depression and anxiety – illnesses that make traditional school a nightmare.  Through my service, I see that though they have everything from someone looking in through a window into their lives– these kids need love and that I can give.  God placed me at this school to show me that everyone (even people that have everything materially speaking) need assistance.  We are brothers and sisters not just of the poor, but of everyone.