Where has the time gone...

This year has flown by. It is my last week at La Salle Academy. It feels like just yesterday I started at this wonderful school. I still have two weeks until my program is over. I have definitely had my up and downs. But thanks to my wonderful support systems here in philadelphia and back home and all over the place, I have gotten through what has been up one of the greatest years of my life.

I am so incredibly sad to be leaving my wonderful students at La Salle Academy. They will always hold a special place in my heart and I will never forget them. Its hard because I have been living and seeing what my students go through on a daily basis but now I get to leave and move on but they are stuck and I just wish I could help them more. 

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others".

My dear friend and co-worker sent me this quote the other day and I feel like it is so true. What are you doing for others? There are some days that I feel like I haven't done anything for others and then I look at my students as they are leaving at the end of the day and they say thank you for something that I've done for them that day and it hits me. It's the little things I do for my students on a daily basis that makes a difference. And its the little things they do for me that always brings a smile to my face. 

I have been so blessed to have worked at such a wonderful ministry site that I will never forget and will always hold a special place in my heart. 

A few of my favorites...

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.” 
                 Fred Rogers

“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” 
                   Fred Rogers

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” 
              St. Catherine of Siena

“Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.”

             St. Catherine of Siena

So as some of you may know, I have decided to attend George Mason University to receive my MSW! Well for some strange reason all my students think that I'm leaving...today. Which isn't true! At school there was a mini carnival for the students and there were prizes being given away. One of my students gave me this Guardian Angel because she was going to miss me. It brought a tear to my eye that they were already sad about me leaving. Another student won a stuffed animal leopard, he wanted to give it to me because I LOVE animal print but I told him how about he keeps it and whenever he sees it he can think of me. He agreed but under one condition, only if I gave it a hug. 

I am so blessed to have such amazing students who I am going to miss tremendously. 

"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love"

         Mother Teresa

xoxo

Katie

We aren't so different after all

Life the past few weeks, or months, have been a little bit crazy. I am currently in the process of applying to Graduate Schools for my Masters in Social Work. The process has been taking over my life but in the end it will all pay off!

A lot of the essay questions are asking me to talk about an experience I have had with a different population. I can’t help but think about my students. I try to relate to them on a daily basis. Tell them, I was there age once. But in reality, I have no clue what they are going through. Yes I was once a teenager and dealt with everything that came with it. But I am a white girl who grew up in the suburbs. I have no idea what it is like to grow up in the city. I don't know what its like to live pay-check to pay-check. I don't know what its like to have parents that aren't really parents. I don't know what it's like to be one of my students. But daily I try to relate to my students some way or another. I know what it's like to deal with peer pressure. I know what its like to have your parents tell you to get along with your siblings and to clean your room. I know that it can sometimes be hard to make new friends. I know that everyone has a bad day every once in a while. These are the ways I try to relate to my students, to try and show them that as different as we are, we are all very similar in the end. 

peace and love

Katie

Reason why I love my job

So the Holidays have been a very busy time! I feel like I just started this program yesterday and it's already Christmas!

I just want to share a picture and story as to why I love my job

As the PE teacher I am trying to get my students to eat healthier. I gave my 3rd and 4th grade students a packet with each day of the week and a few lines on each page. I asked them for the next week to write down the fruits and vegetables they have eaten each day. The picture below is from one of my 4th grade students. He is the sweetest child and always brings a smile to my face. He turned in the assignment a little late but better late than never! All he gave me was the front sheet...none of the sheets with the days of the week. He had the biggest smile on his face when he turned it in so of course I was happy. I flipped the sheet over and saw what he wrote: "Dear Diary my favorite vegtable is broclli because its healthy for us and it helps us have energy for body" This is why I love my job.

Just Enough Light

Just Enough Light

Sometimes only the step I’m on, or the very next one ahead, is all that illuminated for me.

God gives just the amount of light I need for the exact moment I need it.

At those times I walk in surrender to faith, unable to see the future and not fully comprehending the past.

And because it is God who has given me what light I have, I know I must reject the fear and doubt that threaten to overtake me.

I must determine to be content where I am, and allow God to get me where I need to go.

I walk forward, one step at a time, fully trusting that the light God shed is absolutely sufficient.

God has given me just enough light to see where I am to go next. In what direction I am to go into. It’s not the brightest light at times, sometimes its just a dim candle light but I am still following it because I trust God and what he has planned for me. Sometimes I am unsure as to where I am going in life. But I have to keep reminding myself that God wouldn’t lead me somewhere where I wasn’t meant to end up. Just like how he led me to Kensington and to La Salle Academy.

I am currently in the process of applying to Graduate schools for my Masters in Social Work. God has been shining a light down that path for while and I need to follow it and trust him and what he has planned for me.

God please show me the way. Guide me through this next chapter of my life. Show me where I am supposed to go and I will follow you. I trust that you will show me something wonderful and beautiful and will give me more experiences that I will cherish for the rest of my life.  Amen

peace and love

Katie

The change in leaves, the change in my life

It's been a while since I have posted anything and I apologize. Life has been a little crazy lately but I am currently on fall retreat in Cape May and have time to catch up on some blog posts. Enjoy :)

Prayer for Autumn Days

Sr. Joyce Rupp, OSM

God of the seasons, 
there is a time for everything; 
there is a time for dying and a time for rising. 
We need courage to enter into 
the transformation process.

God of autumn, 
the trees are saying goodbye to their green, 
letting go of what has been. 
We, too, have our moments of surrender, 
with all their insecurity and risk. 
Help us to let go when we need to do so.

God of fallen leaves 
lying in colored patterns on the ground, 
our lives have their own patterns. 
As we see the patterns of our own growth, 
may we learn from them.

God of misty days and harvest moon nights, 
there is always the dimension of mystery 
and wonder in our lives. 
We always need to recognize your power-filled presence. 
May we gain strength from this.

God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain, 
many gifts of growth lie within the season of our surrender. 
We must wait for harvest in faith and hope. 
Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

God of geese going south 
for another season, your wisdom enables us 
to know what needs to be left behind 
and what needs to be carried into the future. 
We yearn for insight and vision.

God of flowers 
touched with frost and windows wearing white designs, 
may your love keep our hearts 
from growing cold in the empty seasons.

God of life, 
you believe in us, you enrich us, 
you entrust us with the freedom to choose life. 
For all this, we are grateful. 
Amen

I do believe that since I have started this journey that I have changed, just like the leaves outside have. I have finished one chapter of my life and I have moved on to the next. We have talked about letting go of things and I don’t like to think I am letting go of my past. I like to think of my life as a book and I have moved onto the next chapter. Your past makes you who you are today so we shouldn’t get rid of it but rather learn from it and allow us to look back to that part of our lives in order to help us with our future. I feel as though I have gone against the pattern of life that most young adults have chosen to take after they graduate from college, which is either getting a full time job or going to graduate school. I have chosen to spend a year of my life serving others.

I have chosen to spend a year of my life living and working in the neighborhood of Kensington. I have the freedom to do this with my life. To spend a year serving others. How amazing is it that we have the freedom to choose what we want to do with our lives and in what direction we go in. I thank God for that blessing because I have chosen to do something with my life tat I may have never been able to do if I didn’t have that freedom.

Peace and love

Katie

Inspirational Quotes

I love quotes. I'm going to share some of my favorite quotes and sayings. You will also probably notice that I love Mother Teresa!! She was an incredible women and her quotes just speak to me. So enjoy! :)


"Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow, the same everlasting father who care for you today will take care of you tomorrow and everyday. Either he will shield you from suffering or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it"
              -St. Francis De Sales

Great is His Faithfulness; His loving-kindness begins afresh each day. My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in Him
              -Lamentations 3:23-24 TLB

“It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look."
               -St. Francis of Assisi

"You're taking a big step. But as you leave what is familiar to head into the unknown, remember nothing is a surprise to the Lord. He prepared this way for you. He'll go there beside you and he'll meet you when you get there. And the ones who care for you are praying for his hands to guide your every step"
            -Inside a card Mom and Dad gave me before I started this adventure

"Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do."
           -Pope John XXIII

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. 
         -Mother Teresa

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work. 

           -Mother Teresa

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go. 
            -Mother Teresa

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. 
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

            -Mother Teresa

If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. 

          -Lilla Watson

peace and love

Katie