today I Made A Difference

Today, I Made A Difference. It was my first day of doing evaluations of my kids at work. By "my kids" I mean the teenagers who work in our after school programs with the little kids. The site directors who actually run the programs wrote the evaluations, and it's my job to meet with the teens to go over them and set new goals for the next months. The evaluations themselves basically consist of three affirmations and two challenges to improve.

When I came to the program to get Angela (I'm not allowed to use her real name), she looked tired or something, like she was upset or having a bad day. We started to go over the evaluation. By the second affirmation, I noticed she had this really weird look on her face.

I asked her, "What's up? Is there anything you'd like to say?"

She said, "No, nothing's wrong...I'm just not used to getting compliments."

By the time we were done, she was wearing a big smile, even after we talked about her challenges. The site director told me later that she was a bit giddy after our meeting.

Angela is one of those girls that has grown up in our after school programs who probably doesn't have the most supportive home life. We make a point to try and keep her involved with our programs, even though she's not much of a natural leader. And today it made a difference.