Reboot (pt. 2)

The break up happened very suddenly. It was supposed to be his birthday and we went out for lunch after I gave him some presents. He was acting strange the whole time which I took it as his usual birthday blues. At the end of the meal, I asked him what is wrong and he told me he wanted to break up. Two days later, he came over to take what he has in my apartment and two hours later I've erased all our online contacts. It's like we've never known each other but I guess there were always signs. Last time I saw one of our mutual friend and ask him if he wanted to join in the birthday celebration, that friend looked extremely guilty. When Adam Bouska's NOH8 Campaign was in town and I really wanted to go for a couple picture, he flatly refused. The abruptness of the breakup led me think that there's somebody else, which was confirmed by a friend who saw his profile on one of the online app. While it is all good, I'm just shocked by the lack of any communications. I was the fool who thought everything was going well.

Any break up is, of course, depressing. And since it happened, I have been submerging myself with work, which is plentiful. I have been picked up by a charter school in a sketchier part of the city; a charter school that caters to low-income, out-of-school youth, helping them to return to school to get their High School diploma. Even though, the pay is not ideal, I feel fortunate that I now have health and dental insurance. I have to admit that I didn't join the organization because I like help people, I was at a stage where the moral high ground was non-essential, I was willing to do almost anything, but I have to admit that it feels good to be able to find meaning in my job.

We are a progressive school and we install all kinds of measures to help kids graduate. Everyone is very involved in the education of these kids (18-21). Each of us mentor a few of these kids and each of them have a case manager to help out with their child care, financial health, mental health being and all social service needs. We give them gift certificates and subway card for them to come to school. We give them money for them to go to school. Do you know how long it took me to wrap my head around this concept? And yet, kids don't come to school. I haven't never heard of these things. And if a kid is failing a class, we drop their lowest perform session and average the rest. And we network them with various college and job site so that after they graduate, they will be either working or in college. I see the value of the school but how could we get them ready for real life by treating them like kings and queens?

Anyway, a job is a job and I sincerely don't hate it.