Week 4a- We Day and Older Brother Wisdom

(Back) Me, Joy, Edwin, Bryce, Caitlyn, Jacob, Khalil [Honorary 
member.]. (Front) Conor, Renisha, Tenisha. (Missing: Mikayla, Chriss) 

For as amazing as this program is, and for as much fun as my group had with our Georgian Era project, it was really hard to come to class on Thursday [October 1], when the one place in the world I really wanted to be was Toronto. I also truly learned what adulthood is this week, when I was faced with two choices. I could blow off my group, screw them out of a person, and leave them to present our project without me, and I could have an amazing day in Toronto. Or, I could suck it up, and go to class, because I had a responsibility to my group to show up. You should know, though, I wouldn't just be going to Toronto to screw around for the day, I'd be volunteering. 

2011: Everyone was a crowd pumper except for me. I
sold merchandise. (Back) Emily, Alyssa, Nicolas, 

Kenzie, Mysterious Blonde Guy, (Front) Me

Since I was 12 years old, volunteering has been a huge part of my life, and now that I'm older, and huge section of my resume. But I don't do it for resume padding, I don't do it to look good, or even so I could graduate high school. I do it because it's the right thing to do. I'm lucky that I don't live in poverty, I still have a job in college, and I have a lot of privileges afforded to me because I won the cosmic lottery, and was born in a country like Canada, to parents that stood by me. So I volunteer, because if I've been blessed with good things, I damn well better deserve them. 

Amongst other projects, for the past 4 years, I've always made sure to take a couple days out of my life to volunteer with Me to We. I've never been able to afford a service trip, but this is one thing I can always afford the few dollars in transit to do.

2012: I was a crowd pumper this time! Kelvin, Emma, Sierra, Kenzie, 

Irene, Me

I don't know what it is, maybe it's the people, the atmosphere, or the fact that my overbearing extroversion is not only accepted but encouraged, but something about this day just makes me feel... whole. I feel like I belong, like my loudness and weirdness is almost celebrated instead of hidden. And I know a lot of people think it's a waste of time and money, and everyone's entitled to their opinion, but there's just something about it. 

There's this moment, and it's at a different time every year (and to be honest, you feel it the most when Craig and Marc come on stage), but it's like this spark has ignited in the arena. It starts on the stage, and flows down, across the floor, then up the edges of the bowl to the roof. It's blinding to look at, and steals your breath. It overpowers your senses until it's literally filling your body with this untamable energy. It roars in your ears, pools in your eyes, runs out your nose and mouth. It clutches your lungs, stops your heart, and fills your stomach the way no food can. It overpowers you, firing on every nerve, until suddenly it freezes. For one solitary nanosecond times freezes, and you can finally name it. It's... hope. You're surrounded by over 7 300 people, most of whom are kids, and every last one of them in full of blinding, pure, innocent hope. 

2013: I started to make my own friends this year! Me, Anika, Jonny,
Monika, Blythe

It's the most beautiful feeling in the world to see. I say feeling, because there's something about the way it shows itself that you can see, feel, hear, almost touch. Hope breaks out of its abstract cage and becomes this real, tangible creature. 

I honestly believe you feel it the most as a crowd pumper, because you're entire job is to not only gauge and monitor the overall mood of the kids, but it's to get it as high as you can, and make sure they have the best day of their life. You're there months before applying for a position; weeks before pumping everyone up on the Facebook group; the week before learning the dance and making up cheers and posters; the day before making sure everyone knows the dances, everyone makes a friend out of the day, and everyone has a place to pump up; freezing your butt off at 6:30am, waiting to get into the building the morning of; getting a pump up speech from Craig; welcoming the kids in and giving them the best day of their life. You're there from the moment they walk through the door, bedraggled and exhausted, till the end, when they fly out the door, ready to take on the world. There's no feeling like it.

2014: We got on the floor! Elizabeth, Manahil, Me, Jonny, Monika, Owen

It broke my heart to miss it this year. What made it even harder for me was that We Day Waterloo went under, so the one in Toronto was my only hope, and I had to miss it. It took a lot of restraint to not cry when Jonny messaged me during DigiComm asking where I was. But this is also just how adulthood is. You can't ask Mommy to make your hard decisions, and you can't ignore your problems till they go away. Adulthood isn't losing out on all the fun in life, it's about deciding what's important, and what truly matters.

This is Paul. We look nothing alike. It's almost like we 

aren't even actually related. (We aren't.)

My brother Paul is a huge fan of telling me "You make time for what's important to you" when I neglect things like reading my bible. Or spending time with him. He uses it in the context of God, but it can be applied to other situations, like my Class vs. We Day situation. On one hand We Day is important. I do it every year, and I love having an impact of hundreds of kids lives. But on the other, my group was depending on me to show up. I gave them my word that I'd be there, I did my written part of the project, but I needed to "put up or shut up". That is to say "Do the whole project, or suffer the consequences and wrath of my group".

So I got out of bed, sucked it up, and went to class, because I'm an adult.

We took another program photo that day. For as much of a reminder as it is of all the moments in Toronto that I missed, and will never get back, it's also a reminder of my choice to really enter adulthood, and what it truly means. Adulthood isn't skipping out on fun, and it's not making your life outside of work take the sidelines. Adulthood is finding the joy in your work, and about ensuring everyone's needs are met and cared for. Maybe it's just the Mennonite coming out, but that's adulthood to me.

This got really deep, and now it's 1AM, and I've been working on this for six hours. I should go to bed...

Look, Mom! We're adulting!

A couple bonus photos from We Day Waterloo 2014. 

Travis and I were trying to be cute, then Owen and two random girls 

decided to photobomb. This was the least bad one.

Some of the front-half floor pumpers from We Day Waterloo 2014, and our lovely 
Champion Volunteer, Sara (She's in the blue sweater. This girl's gonna change the 
world). Sadly, I've forgotten almost everyone else's names. I feel really bad now.

On the floor, right before the day started. Travis (back turned), Elizabeth, Jonny, Monika, Me, Manahil, Owen