The days have flown by, and now there is less than one week left of the DukeEngage program. Less than a week. This time next Saturday, I’ll be in my home in North Carolina, enjoying the one night I have there before I return to Duke to help run the 1G (first-generation college student) pre-orientation program, and from there, begin my senior year at Duke. It still feels like I just stepped off the plane in the Seattle airport.
I’ve gone so far as to start counting things in “lasts.” My last grocery run in Seattle. My last all-staff meeting at work. My last weekend service project. Too soon will be my last bus ride on the 48 to 23rd and East Union to transfer buses on my daily trip to Amara, my last walk up the Ave, my last day at my community partner site, and my last night in my cozy apartment in Stevens Court.
However, as much as I want to hold onto this place, I realize that this coming separation anxiety speaks to a larger takeaway of DukeEngage. My time in this city has been a two-way experience – it has affected me just as I have affected it (in however small a manner.) Over the past several weeks, I’ve been able to spend my time working towards Amara’s mission of creating a more child-focused court system in Washington State. This has included creating a database of stakeholders, crafting talking points around how to deliver the message about this effort, write reports updating the community about the project, and drafting research summaries (among several other projects.)
In exchange for this work I’ve done, Amara has taught me valuable lessons, including how to get work done effectively in the professional world, how to network to reach your goal, and how to dedicate your time and effort to a cause that may have slow-coming results but that is worth the end goal. It has also given me valuable insight into how the dependency care system works and the challenges it continues to face today. The understanding that I’ve taken away from the multiple trainings I’ve been able to sit in on has informed my worldview on the things that the average person with no experience in this field might take for granted.
As much as I’d like to, I can’t define all of the ways in which both Amara and the weekend service projects have impacted me. However, I can say that every day has been a valuable learning experience. The big events and the little surprises, the victories and the disappointments all culminate into a rollercoaster of an eight-week program. And it would be a disservice to my experience to only focus on one or two aspects – in this case, the service I’ve participated in. Seattle has been so much more. Tucked in between the meetings and the deadlines and the early morning trudges to the vans to catch a ride to service project sites have been the memories that has made DukeEngage that much more special. These are memories of the night we spent hitting a handful of inflated balloons at each other, the night my supervisor took me out to a night of slam poetry, the time spent wandering around Pike Place Market at sunset, the wandering up and down the Ave to find a new place to eat, and so much more that can’t be encapsulated in a blog post.
DukeEngage’s focus throughout these eight weeks has been on service to and with the community around us. I am not sure if I’ve served Seattle or if Seattle has served me more. Either way, just like the other places I’ve seen or lived in that have reserved spaces in my heart, I’ll carry Seattle with me. Just one more week – time to make it count, because I’m gonna miss this.
“It’s funny how a place can sink in.” – Mipso
Kristen Wade
Duke Class of 2015
I’ve gone so far as to start counting things in “lasts.” My last grocery run in Seattle. My last all-staff meeting at work. My last weekend service project. Too soon will be my last bus ride on the 48 to 23rd and East Union to transfer buses on my daily trip to Amara, my last walk up the Ave, my last day at my community partner site, and my last night in my cozy apartment in Stevens Court.
However, as much as I want to hold onto this place, I realize that this coming separation anxiety speaks to a larger takeaway of DukeEngage. My time in this city has been a two-way experience – it has affected me just as I have affected it (in however small a manner.) Over the past several weeks, I’ve been able to spend my time working towards Amara’s mission of creating a more child-focused court system in Washington State. This has included creating a database of stakeholders, crafting talking points around how to deliver the message about this effort, write reports updating the community about the project, and drafting research summaries (among several other projects.)
In exchange for this work I’ve done, Amara has taught me valuable lessons, including how to get work done effectively in the professional world, how to network to reach your goal, and how to dedicate your time and effort to a cause that may have slow-coming results but that is worth the end goal. It has also given me valuable insight into how the dependency care system works and the challenges it continues to face today. The understanding that I’ve taken away from the multiple trainings I’ve been able to sit in on has informed my worldview on the things that the average person with no experience in this field might take for granted.
As much as I’d like to, I can’t define all of the ways in which both Amara and the weekend service projects have impacted me. However, I can say that every day has been a valuable learning experience. The big events and the little surprises, the victories and the disappointments all culminate into a rollercoaster of an eight-week program. And it would be a disservice to my experience to only focus on one or two aspects – in this case, the service I’ve participated in. Seattle has been so much more. Tucked in between the meetings and the deadlines and the early morning trudges to the vans to catch a ride to service project sites have been the memories that has made DukeEngage that much more special. These are memories of the night we spent hitting a handful of inflated balloons at each other, the night my supervisor took me out to a night of slam poetry, the time spent wandering around Pike Place Market at sunset, the wandering up and down the Ave to find a new place to eat, and so much more that can’t be encapsulated in a blog post.
DukeEngage’s focus throughout these eight weeks has been on service to and with the community around us. I am not sure if I’ve served Seattle or if Seattle has served me more. Either way, just like the other places I’ve seen or lived in that have reserved spaces in my heart, I’ll carry Seattle with me. Just one more week – time to make it count, because I’m gonna miss this.
“It’s funny how a place can sink in.” – Mipso
Kristen Wade
Duke Class of 2015