My personal favorite part of last week was when we got to have a discussion on how we can best help others while protecting ourselves. As I talked about in our discussion, when I was volunteering in Juvenile Hall I was really struggling in the beginning to connect with my first class. I took this as a sign that it was a personal flaw of mine. I thought that maybe I wasn’t listening to them, or doing a good job presenting myself as someone they could talk too, or that the worlds we came from were so different that I wouldn’t be able to make a difference. But, when they filled out their evaluations of us there were tons of comments on how they appreciated us coming in and liked talking to us. It made me realize that not all progress can be seen, and just because it isn’t tangible to you doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress. I’m not positive what direction my career will take me, and I will probably end up doing multiple things, but one of this things I want to do is directly help and interact with people who are struggling. It was a really helpful food for thought about my own abilities to manage my own emotions working in the social work (or similar) fields.