Looking Forward to Thursdays

Hey everyone,
First off, thanks to Richard for starting this blog. Like Janelle minus even the video blog experience, I am a first time blogger. Yikes! But as they say, there is a first time for everything. And I wouldn't want to be blogging about anything else but Kapatid.

To echo Paula, I want to sincerely thank our frosh interns who have been amazing this year. You three have put in so many hours into our planning meetings and events. Paula, you are amazing. I hope you all know that I love you so much.

Kapatid has been a very life-giving experience. I love when Thursday rolls around and I am always excited to see our amazing Kapatidees. Just thinking about them makes me happy. I can hardly believe their willingness to welcome and to love us.

Today, we had an intimate group of about 10 people or so. A few younger students have started showing up regularly which gives me hope for the sustainability of Kapatid next year. Past visits had attracted the seniors who have been coming to Kapatid for the past couple of years and it's sad (but exciting, as they move to newer things!) that they'll be leaving us in June. With that said, it is especially wonderful to see new, beautiful faces joining the mentorship program.

Because the group was so small, we led a discussion-based visit about relationships. We shared some of our personal stories with relationships and they asked us questions about cheating, verbal abuse, and maintaining relationships through the transition from high school to college. Paula had a wonderful activity where we each wrote down the six most important people or ideas in our lives on a piece of paper and were forced to cross out someone/something we had listed one at a time. At times we had to pick and choose who was more important to us; I found it hard to let any of them go. The activity was supposed to represent how abusive relationships can sometimes force us to abandon time spent with loved ones, picking and choosing in a seemingly reckless way.

I appreciated that the Kapatidees were able to ask us questions and share stories that related personally to them. Often, it's hard to get people to open up more seriously in a setting that's so public and vulnerable. I wish that our peers at Stanford could be more communicative of the intimate things going on in their lives.

To end things off, we reminded them about Relay for Life and PYLC. Their PCN has been moved to April 4 and they would love for us to join them! We'll keep you updated on any carpool plans. Let's show how much we support them.

Until next time, much love and GROUP HUGS WITH BOOTY SHAKES (a beloved ending custom of Kapatid visits),
Shelly

P.S. Shantel got her driver's license! Woohoo!