My best day

The Friday before last (just over a week ago now) I got to ride along with one of the home-based counselors instead of doing my normal Academy duties.  I loved it.  This is the stuff that really, really interests me - counseling psychology.  Obviously I couldn't do an internship in that, because not being trained and certified I'd just be observing all summer, and I don't think I'd be getting credit for that.

I spent the day with Mike, a Cuban-American (habla español!) who somehow knew my family background despite me never having talked about it to my coworkers.  He had me sign a confidentiality notice and let me come along to talk with three of the kids assigned to him.

I was worried it would be weird, but I guess by this point in the system the students are used to having lots of people sticking their noses into their personal lives.  None of them seemed to have a problem with my presence, and one of them was even a former student of mine who actually missed coming to Academy ("it's boring at home").  Be still my heart.

We took one kid out for lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant, which was good for my stomach but not my wallet; between food and gas, I've been in the red for a few weeks now.  Mike told him to eat some of the green salsa, and for some reason he did.  "Te pica dos veces," Mike said.

The last meeting was my favorite, because both the student and his mother seemed to love having us there.  I could have stayed and chatted with them forever, but soon we were off.

I was going to call Mike to ride along again this week, since the Academy was going to close for a couple weeks during training for the new volunteers.  It's staying open, though, to finish out a couple of kids.  But I might call him anyway.