Artifacts (part 1 out of many, I hope)

(The opinions expressed are not representative of City Year or AmeriCorps as organizations)

I don't often attach significance to objects. If I'm asked to share an object that means a lot to me, I usually struggle to come up with something, and end up bringing in a book. Books are great, but it's the words in them that I really care about. The same goes for all of the letters I've saved over the years. They mean a lot to me, but it's the words and messages they convey, rather than the pieces of paper, that I value. But over the past few weeks I've accumulated a number of artifacts from students, and these objects mean so much to me. I worry that over time I'll become cynical of them and what they meant at the time I got them. Perhaps negative interactions with the students will taint my memory of how great it was to receive them. Or maybe I'll just be sad, and let my sadness convince me that I wasn't actually happy about these simple things. Hopefully writing about them will convince my future self that this feeling is real.

I came back to my laptop after my first couple of class periods to find this note and drawing covering my screen. It took me longer than it should have to figure out who drew out. She is a student who hangs out in the City Year room a lot. She doesn't say much, and I always worry that we aren't doing enough for her, but she seems content just being there. 

I was trying to get to know one of the more "difficult" students, and she told me when her birthday was, and said she wanted a present. This conversation happened on August 16th, the day before my birthday. I told her that, and the next day she gave me this pencil, and told me it was a birthday gift. I think it was the only gift I received this year. It's a great one. 

She grabbed my hand as I walked by her table, and handed me this penny, saying I should "put it towards paying for my education." Best joke I've heard in a long time. 

 Her eyes lit up as I entered the room, and she waved me over enthusiastically. "Miss C! Miss C! Come sit at my table!" I sat down next to her, and we chatted as the teacher took attendance and dealt with logistics. After the lesson began, I tried modeling good classroom behavior, taking notes and listening as the teacher taught. She had already done the annotating the teacher was trying to get them to do though, so she bored, and noticed there was a zipped pocket on my sleeve. So she started playing with it, zipping up and down. And then ripped off these sheets of paper, scribbled these notes (they say "your awesome" and "have a nice day") and put them in there.