Today was my first day of volunteering at I Have A Dream.  Thankfully, I didn’t get lost again and I arrived effortlessly on time.  Driving through the Pisgah View Apartments, you can instantly tell that it is lower income.  Paint is peeling off of siding and unit numbers are either missing or barely hanging on.  Unlike fancier neighborhoods, the Pisgah view neighborhood is located almost on the freeway and tucked away from downtown.  Because of economic struggle and perhaps other prejudices, it is easy to see that dreamers need the program because their guardians might be busy with more immediate issues other than worrying about the long-term benefits of a complete education.  I only tutored three kids today and I absolutely respect educators’ and understand the difficulties of their jobs.  It was difficult trying to motivate the children to stay interested and focused.  It was especially difficult trying to explain the importance of practice and careful work (ex-writing out math problems instead of using a calculator and not making careless mistakes.)  Luckily, the kids were super sweet and I enjoyed helping them out.  I can definitely say that I appreciate my parents’ help and motivation all throughout my life (especially that one cruel 9-hour drive back from Kentucky when they made me practice fractions the entire time) and I’m so lucky that I had parents that cared and could afford to give me everything I needed.  If I used twitter I might do “#forevergrateful.”