Favorite toy

 

            I remember my mom handing me the American Girl catalog telling me I might want one of dolls for Christmas. Explaining to me that she had once cherished her dolls as a child, these American Girl dolls were special because each one had their own story. I carefully chose Molly, the one from Illinois during WWII. I could have been more than six or seven years old, so I did not pick Molly for her background story. I chose Molly because she resembled me. She had long, straight chocolate hair. Her eyes were blue, but no one could really tell because of the glasses that surrounded them. Her skin tone was an alabaster color with a hint of red undertones. She wore a blue skirt and sweater, much like my school uniform. I instantly knew I had a connection with her. 

            I tore open her box on Christmas morning and Molly immediately became my beloved toy. I received a bed for her, a desk for her studies, and a chest for her numerous outfits. I did not care about any of my other presents; I only cared about making Molly feel at home. I immediately went upstairs and set up a living area for her in a corner of my room. I remember telling her all about my family, talking to her as if she were real. I dragged her around everywhere for about two years. I never had an imaginary friend, but I guess in a lot of ways Molly was mine.

            As I grew out of my doll phase Molly went from having her own corner of my room, to having a shelf on my bookcase, and she still remains there in immaculate condition. All of her accessories are prominently displayed with her, and I hope to pass her down one day.  

A time when I was sick

             I had just pledged Pi Phi, and I was supposed to be giddy with excitement. Everyone was bonding, and although I was beyond excited, I felt like all I wanted to do was curl up in bed. My head was pounding, my body ached, the chapter room was spinning, and I felt woozy. I was able to greet some of my new sorority sisters with excitement and a smile. I went up to our new member coordinator to apologize for my gloomy behavior and asked to leave. She could tell I was not feeling well by my pasty complexion and had someone drive me to my dorm. As I was getting into my lounge clothes, I noticed an enormous rash on my leg. There was literally a target sign stretched across my left calf, with a red center and circles of red and white surrounding it. I completely freaked out and practically sprinted to the health center. The doctor told me I had probably encountered some new bacteria in the communal showers and gave me some antibiotic cream to slather on my outbreak, completely ignoring my other symptoms.

            I fell asleep that evening and slept over eighteen hours, something I had never done before. My roommate later told me that she had checked my pulse throughout the night, unsure of what to do. When I finally emerged from my deep sleep I tried to get out of my bed. My limbs would barely move, and I felt like I was a tin soldier that needed to be oiled up.  I knew something was wrong with me besides some new bacteria that my skin brushed up against. I had a scorching temperature and my RA said I needed to be taken to the emergency room. My friend rushed me to the hospital, and the nurse immediately identified my ailment as Lyme disease.  A tick had bit me sometime during rush passing on the infection. The doctor told me I was lucky that I had come in when I did, because the disease could have become fatal. I was prescribed bed rest for two weeks accompanied with a series of powerful antibiotics. I was too sick to fly home or drive home, so my mom came and we stayed in the Worthington for the full two weeks. I slowly regained my strength. Having missed out on several activities, I was finally able to joyfully bond with my new sorority sisters. 

Family Pet

I was six years old when I scooped up the eight-week old yellow lab out of her crate and ran after my mom pleading that we buy the dog. The last thing my mom had intended to do that day was buy a dog. I remember her continuing to refuse to buy the dog. I turned to my dad with sad eyes and asked him pretty please with a cherry on top to get the dog. He could not resist, so we left the Saturday flea market with a new addition to our family. I decided to name my new furry friend Katie, after my best friend. She was a half Yellow Lab/ half Golden Retriever. Looking at her you would think she was Labrador with her short yellow hair, big black eyes, and floppy triangle shaped ears. I would spend hours dressing Katie up in my dolls clothes and scooting her around the house in a baby stroller. In my eyes she was a real-life doll.

As she grew out of baby doll clothes we moved onto to bigger and better things. I introduced her to the backyard and we began playing fetch all day. Then, I realized that if I hid somewhere in the backyard she would find me, so that began our many years of playing hide-and-seek. When Katie and I were not playing I would sit with her and talk to her about everything going on in my life. She was my true companion. No matter what I said or did she would always protect me and stay by my side. 

Katie would eat my vegetables for me at dinner as I slyly slid them under the table for her. She was my partner in crime. She would protect me from other neighborhood dogs as we went on our daily walks. Katie went and got my mom when I fell off my bike in the driveway and busted my knee. Time and again she proved to be my loyal companion, never letting me down. 

Where I was when I first heard...

            It has almost been exactly two years since I first heard the exciting news. I was working in the fitting rooms at Anthropologie. It was the beginning of December, so shopping was starting to get chaotic. There was a line of women anxiously awaiting a dressing room and I was frantically trying to accommodate them. The line of women kept curling around the Christmas decorated store. I was stressed about senior midterms coming up, and the last thing I needed was a store full of inpatient women wondering why it was so crowded. Then suddenly my manger’s high-pitched voice screeched over the employee walkie-talkies, “Catherine your mom is waiting in the employee room in the back. She has urgent news to tell you.”

            I panicked. What could be so urgent that my mom had to come add to the chaos of work? They never let non-employees in the back. I quickly went through the back door of the fitting rooms into the employee room. My mom was jumping up and down, with a smile stretched across her face, screaming, “Congratulations!” The ceiling was covered in purple helium balloons., and my mom handed me over a white packet with a horned frog on it that said, “Welcome to TCU” in huge capitalized letters. My mom gave me a huge hug and told me how proud she was of me and that she was sorry if she disrupted work, but she had to come share the news. I started to tear up in excitement. The other employees came and congratulated me, knowing that TCU was my first choice. My manager came in and said, “Catherine you are a hard-working employee and I am so happy that you got into TCU. The store closes in one hour and I know you are supposed to restock tonight, but why don’t you go ahead and leave. Go celebrate your victory of getting into TCU!”  

Last Session

After having conflicting schedules for the past couple of weeks, Alberto and I were finally able to meet last night. Since we had not met in awhile, it felt as if we were starting all over again. We collaboratively wrote a description about his day. Alberto knew all of the words to describe his day, but he did not understand how to put those words in different tenses. I tried explaining it to him, but he just did not get it. I have found that tends to be an issue with our sessions, I try to explain something but it never seems to be effective. I never know what else to do.  

Once we conquered writing about his day, I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to focus on. He asked if we could go work on the computers because he wanted to learn how to respond to his e-mails. He had realized that he receives a lot of e-mails about TCU events and work schedules that he needs to respond to. So, we went and logged onto a computer and I showed him how to click the reply button to respond. His face lit up with excitement when he clicked reply and started typing a response. After he typed his response I showed him where to click to actually send the e-mail. He was extremely excited to learn how to do this, and said that knowing how to respond to e-mails will make a lot of things easier for him.  

Alberto told me he could not meet again next week, so this week was sadly our last week. I told him that I would like to continue helping him next semester. We decided that we would contact each other after the break and try to figure out at time to continue meeting. He said he would really try to improve his grammar over the break. I have really enjoyed helping Alberto, and I feel like each time I meet with him I continue to grow as a person. 

Newspaper

When I met Alberto last night we immediately started reviewing his note cards. He knew them with great ease. He asked not to make new ones this time because he is having a busy week and did not think he would have the time to devote to studying new note cards. Alberto has also been writing weekly journal entries, so I went over his previous entry. I noticed that frequently forgets to put a subject in his sentence and often mixes up tenses but besides that his writing is flawless. After that we started to read an article from the ESL newspaper. Alberto could read perfectly but when I would ask him to summarize the paragraph he just read he could not do that. I started realizing that Alberto does not understand some basic words like believe, trust, change, and numerous other words. Without understanding those basic words it is difficult to understand a sentence or paragraph as a whole. I found that it was hard for me even to describe what believe means. Those words are so instinctive to me.  

After Alberto and I got over the words he was struggling with he told me that he had been talking with Ofelia. He would like to get as much help as possible with his English. He knows that his lack of knowledge with the basics is what is holding him back. Ofelia has told him that two people in our English class are without partners. He asked me who they were and if I could somehow get them in contact with each other. Alberto is available in the evenings on Mondays and Fridays. I am continuously shocked by how dedicated he is about mastering English. 

Notecards 2

Alberto walked in the library with a big smile on his face. I had missed last week and he was eager to show me what he had done with Katie. He had written a rough journal entry describing his day, read an article out of ESL newspaper, and learned his notecards. I noticed on his journal entry that he has problems with verb tenses so we are going to try and come up with a plan to help him with that. For the meantime, we are asking him to keep on writing journal entries for practice.  

As we were going over the article from the ESL newspaper I was shocked by how much he comprehended. The article was about how school districts are slashing bus routes to help with expenses. Alberto asked us what slashing meant and how to pronounce routes. He did not hesitate with asking questions. Majority of the time he could understand the meaning of the sentence even if he could not understand all the words. He reads with ease but lacks confidence when pronouncing some words. To keep him reading we have asked him to read another article out of the newspaper for next week.  

Next, we reviewed his previous notecards and made new ones. Alberto was extremely excited by this. One of the questions was why do American celebrate Thanksgiving? He understood the answer but said he has always been puzzled by the expression Thanksgiving. There is no spanish word for Thanksgiving so instead they translate it in a phrase that means the action of giving thanks. Alberto said he never understood how a phrase could be one word in English. After making ten notecards Alberto said that was enough for today that he needs to take baby steps with all this information. He excitedly reviewed what he had asked him to for next week and said he would spend a lot of time practicing. I suggested that he might even try doing homework with his children because it would help his English and by his children describing their homework it would probably help them learn it too. Alberto seemed to think that was a great idea. I continually blown away by how eager Alberto is to learn. I have enjoyed helping him become a more confident person. 

Notecards

Last Monday at 6 PM when Katie and I arrived at the library we immediately noticed how crowded it was with people studying for their numerous tests the week before fall break. We knew that maybe the library was not the best idea for working with Alberto this week. So, when Alberto walked through the doors of library smiling and waving at us we told him we were going to try something new today. Katie and I showed Alberto the way to Tucker Technology building and we decided to do our meeting at one of the studies areas there. Away from the chaos of the library. This week we focused on showing Alberto the concept of notecards. He had never even seen a notecard. We went over some of the information he needed to know for his citizenship test. We showed Alberto that we could write a question on one side of the card and an answer on the other side to use as a study tool. He loved the idea. He was so excited to have a way to go home and quiz himself or even have his children quiz him. We went over about thirteen questions and made notecards then I could tell he was reaching his limit of learning enough about our structure of government. So, we we moved onto the next thing on our agenda and showed him some basic grammar like adjectives. He had no idea what nouns, adjectives, or pronouns are. As we showed him examples and explained he seemed to catch on easily. In order to see where his writing skills are we have asked him to write a journal entry for homework. That way we can see if there is any particular area he needs extra help in. I look forward to seeing if Alberto has learned his notecards and I also look forward to reading his journal entry. 

Cancellation

I looked at my cell phone late afternoon on Monday and saw I had several missed phone calls from Alberto and two new voicemails. A little concerned, I immediately called him back. He told me he had to cancel our session that day and wanted to make sure I did not go and have him not show up. He was extremely apologetic and asked me if there was any additional work I would like him to do since he was missing the meeting. I told him not to worry about it and to keep working on his computer skills and the vocabulary words we learned. I am looking forward to seeing him next Monday. 

Walk With Alberto

This week when Katie and I met Alberto we immediately spent some more time working on the computer. He brought his username and password with him so, we were able to show him how to login to a computer and check his e-mails. As he has slowly typing in his username and password to access his e-mails, I could see the excitement in his face. With each letter he typed his smile grew bigger. Then, when his e-mail came up he just froze. I said, "Alberto this is your e-mail" and he responded, "wow so this is what e-mail looks like." I got goose-bumps because it never occurred to me that he had literally never even seen e-mail. Katie and I showed him how to click on each e-mail and delete it if necessary. Katie has to help me remember to point out the basics like selecting an e-mail to open. I forget that Alberto does not know even the simplest tasks and yet to me they are almost instinctual.  He was able to read and comprehend each e-mail with ease. He had a grin from ear to ear as he was learning all of this. Then he said, "this is a lot for me and now I must go home and practice with my kids." I told him that practice makes perfect, we all have to start somewhere, and I was once a beginner too. 

For our next big adventure of the day we went for a walk. Katie and I asked him to show us where he worked. He pointed to an area beyond the Bass Building but, Katie and I did not know exactly what he was talking about. We told him to lead the way. Katie and I both learned something from him! There are graduate apartments about two or three blocks behind the library and another random building that we could not identify. He is in charge of both those areas.  As we walked towards his designated area that he maintains we started to point out things. I would point at a plant and ask him what specifically it was like a bush, hedge, grass, and tree. He knew grass and tree fairly well but he did not know the difference between a hedge and bush. After we got that settled I asked him to identify the different parts of a tree. He did not know what that meant so I showed him what a trunk, branch, and leaf are. We also went over what a sidewalk is and what weeds are. He said that his boss always asks him to get rid of the weeds and he has never known what that means.  

Overall, I think this meeting was extremely successful. I continue to be touched by how eager he is to learn. We covered a lot of new material. Alberto took it all in and was excited to go home and share all his discoveries with his family. It will be interesting to see how much he actually retains. Next week we are going to review the computer some more, go over landscape vocabulary more, and start some citizenship activities.  

Computer Skills

I arrived late to my meeting with Alberto. After searching around the library, I found him and Katie diligently working in the computer lab. Katie had taken him in there to look up some citizenship activities. What she was not expecting to find out was that Alberto had absolutely no idea how to work a computer. He did not know how to turn it on or even how to work the keyboard.  

Katie tried to figure out if he has a username and password to show him what e-mail is. He said he has a password and will bring it next time. They pulled up some citizenship activities and read the Pledge of Allegiance. That is when I got there. They were finishing up their citizenship activity and were getting ready to start typing lessons.  

I googled typing lessons and a lot came up. Alberto was eager to learn how to type even one letter. We did did several different typing games and he was satisfied. I started to get the idea that he was at his saturation limit for the day so, I wrapped the lesson up. We showed him how to turn his computer off. With a bright smile he said, "I cannot wait to go home and show my kids that I can turn on/off a computer!"  

Next week we told him that we would switch up the citizenship activities with vocabulary activities and maybe even go on a walk to point items out. Then come back and go over more basic computer skills. I feel like we are really helping and connecting with Alberto. I am looking forward to next week. 

First day with Alberto

I met with Alberto for the first time this evening. Katie and I went together this time to create a plan. He seemed very eager to meet us and came prepared with a notebook and a basic English textbook he has been using to teach himself. He said that his three children have been helping him learn English. When we started talking I noticed right away that he seems extremely unconfident speaking English. He has only been working at TCU for four months. He previously worked at Chili's for fourteen years. Alberto said he was happy that he decided to work at TCU because it will open up opportunities. 

 Katie and I came to the conclusion that Alberto would get the most out of a mix between building his basic English skills and preparing for his citizenship test. He grew up in Mexico and can apply for citizenship in one year. Along with that he does a lot of horticulture work around TCU so, he is wanting to learn the basic vocabulary that goes along with that.  

Alberto is eager to learn, attentive, and determined. I am looking forward to working with him. For next week I am going to make notecards of basic vocabulary for him to sound out and bring pictures for him to identify objects in. 

Childhood Street

You come to a fork in the road and you take a left facing a quaint street of maybe six houses. This is the place I called home from the time I was seven to fifteen. The first thing you notice when you turn on the street are the oak trees bending over swaying their branches as if they waving hello to you, welcoming you to the neighborhood. The street is lined with unique houses representing different shapes and sizes. The first few are the traditional American house: red brick, dark shutters, and empowering white columns. Then, there are a few beige stucco houses with terracotta-shingled roofs.  Dense trees surround each house creating a sense of mysteriousness.  If you listen closely you can hear the Buffalo Bayou trickling behind the houses. If you get lucky you might even see a bunny hop across the street. The street is quaint, inviting, and holds the majority of my childhood memories.