A Cult I Avoided

OK, that title is completely misleading, but it peaked your interest, right?

Saturday Jon and I participated in the real City Year Serve-a-Thon (a month ago I preemptively tried to attend the serve-a-thon... I've been having problems with dates lately). Over 3000 volunteers swarmed in Government Center (huge plaza type-expance near City Hall and other government - duh - buildings) among the hundreds of City Year volunteers.

City Year is technically an AmeriCorps program, but it's also very much its own entity. Back in college I had applied for City Year when I was looking for AmeriCorps programs, but I was not accepted. Having witnessed City Year in action, I can't help but be glad. Please don't get me wrong, City Year does great things--many associated with after school programs. Boston would be much worse without their presence.

But the organization has a bizarre, almost militaristic (cultish, if you will) feel to it. They were uniforms. They do everything in teams. They do morning PT (physical training) in formation in Copley Square. They talk about "deploying" and "redeploying" volunteers. They have chants. It's a little too conformist for my taste. Standing in Government Centre surrounded by 3000 people chanting and doing jumping jacks... I was quite weirded out by the whole thing.

Still, The Serve-a-Thon was great. I ran into a former Habitat Worcester volunteer who has become a City Year volunteer, and a group of us helped paint a middle school in Roxbury. There is something very warm and fuzzy about so many people uniting to help better the Boston community. Next year I'm going to get a group--either a "Group Jenny" or a "HEARTH group." It would be so much fun to have an entire group working on a common project.

I am happy to report that work is "fun" again. I have had an epiphany (finally) and realize that I can't control everything. So I will do what I do, and I just can't worry if others (I have some very specific "others" in mind) can't hold up their end. The only thing that does still frustrate me is being asked to do nearly-impossible tasks. That still irks me mightily.