And it continues. . . .

We have been asked to talk about our experiences so far, which is basically another update. I admit that I couldn't really find things I wanted to talk about in my last update. The beauty of the campus hasn't changed much, neither has the weather or our work schedule. So I figure this time I will talk about the actual program (my responsibilities) and the people in the program.

So most of the time the interns just do what Ben tells us to do. We do typical office things (photocopying, making spreadsheets, handling the concerns of the first years) and help run the summer school. First and second years always ask us exactly what we do and we can never really tell them so we just say, "Whatever Ben tells us to do; wash his car, do his laundry, press his shirts." :-) Yes, we can just joke like that, which brings me to what I really want to talk about.

Before interning with the Teacher Corps I had never hung out with people different from myself. I mean I have a lot of non-black friends but they all can identify with me; raised in the city, like hip hop culture, not the richest people, or has experienced/experiences the minority struggle (I wish I had a better phrase for that but it hasn't come to me yet). My last sentence may have been a bit confusing so I'll be blunt, before coming to Mississippi, I cannot count how many white friends I had because I don't have any. It's not that I am racist or don't like white people, I just never thought we could connect because we have had completely different experiences and I mean how can we be friends and carry out normal conversations if half the time you don't know what I'm saying (and vice versa).

I still can't count how many white friends I have. But I'm proud to say that now it's because I have so many. If I don't learn/carry anything else away from Teacher Corps this summer, I can safely say that I have grown in the two weeks that I have been here. I have learned that people are people and we may have different experiences but that shouldn't stop us from speaking to one another. I remember just the other day I was schooling a second year about the ins and outs of black hair. It was actually really funny. And they teach me the southern lingo (which I then proceed to butcher. yea, I'm bad at "foreign" slang)

Teacher Corps has been very beneficial to me. Now I'm confident that I can go back to Amherst and connect with more of my peers since I no longer hold this idea that I cannot be friends with whites.