Week One

8/21/06

My name is Paul and I will be the Jesuit Volunteer working in the Champion Guidance Center at Saint Vincent de Paul this year. This is my first entry, and I am not going to lie… I've never thought of myself as the blogging type. Nonetheless, it is a way to keep others updated on my experiences and perhaps (optimistically speaking… maybe) a source of inspiration and information for others.

I decided to wait until I had worked here for a full week before recording anything. My main reason for doing this was that I wanted to establish a complete first impression. I often find that when we go into anything new, we are so desperate to understand that we try and form opinions from the small bits and pieces of information that we do have. On my first few days of work, I was really trying to gage the moods, perspectives, goals, and general ways of doing things here. I'm talking about something that we all do… something that Malcom Gladwell called "thin slicing" in his popular book blink.

The thing with “thin slicing,” or making intuitive judgments on the spot, is that it is only effective in certain situations. When I walk to work in West Oakland, I am going to rely on those snap judgments to keep myself safe(r). At the same time, St. Vincent’s as a whole is a true patchwork of different people, services, philosophies, and goals that can not be understood or absorbed in a matter of moments or even weeks. It really takes time to gain an understanding of what really goes on in the guidance center, and especially to get to know the individual people here.

During my first few days of work, my perspectives and ideas about the center swung all over the place as I tried to come to some conclusions from the bits of information that I had. I quickly realized that almost every person I spoke with, client or employee, had something different to say about the people and services provided by the Champion Guidance Center. I found that it was best to just follow the advice of my supervisor and “just be.” I tried not to maintain any expectations coming into the experience, and I mostly listened and observed.

Ultimately, I would say that I had a very good first week of work. If I was to use one word to summarize the experience, it would be surreal. A great deal of what I did seemed familiar yet strange. I felt like I was looking at Salvador Dali’s famous Lobster Phone. I recognized it as a telephone, but I still did not quite understand why the lobster was there. Many of the clients and co-workers here reminded me of others whom I had worked with in the past, but somehow different. Having gone to a Jesuit university (Boston College), I felt well acquainted with the organization’s perspectives on issues such as charity and justice. At the same time, I am new to programs like the Champion Workforce, which employs men from the street to work in the guidance center.

Anyway, I've been taking it slow and picking up new projects as they come. I'll get more into specifics in the entries to follow. I’m going to wrap it up right here before this thing gets too long… thank you for reading… more (exciting entries) to come.

paul