A few years ago, when I first moved to Philadelphia my church
asked me to be in charge of their youth program for girls. That was really
daunting considering I’d never really been in charge of anything. Luckily it
turned out that I really love teenagers and have a ton of fun hanging out with
them. Unluckily ,twice a year I have to do big shindigs for their parents, one
at the beginning of the year and one at the end. I know these things are
supposed to be joyous but they’re really, really not. The are in fact exercises
of terror that lead me from being a sane human being to a hybrid of Chef Gordon
and Gollum.
So when December was staring me in the face I knew I couldn't
procrastinate any more. Preparations for the overwhelmingly named Young Women
in Excellence must commence. At least this one started out better than last
years. Last winter my husband got uveitus, a lovely illness that is sort of
like pink eyes ugly big brother and causes 10% of all new cases of blindness every
year. I spent the time leading up to the big day in the doctors office. No way
to go and do last minute prep for that! Luckily my procrastination with
starting things isn’t always matched by procrastination setting up for them so
everything was already ready. Well, almost everything. Nobody notices little
things like the person conducting it running in late, right? So this year had
the added benefit of not having a grotesque eyed husband and other life trauma.
What could go wrong?
Well, plenty. One of the goals of the program is to have the
youth lead. That means that I’m supposed to be a combination of minion and adviser to one of the girls. Last year I completely ignored that in favor of
doing it myself. It was my first one and I was not up to being the patient mentor.
This time I didn’t have being new as an excuse. Not saying the girl in charge
wasn’t awesome. She was. It’s just that I’m barely organized enough to keep
myself going, let alone a 17 year old who hasn’t done something this big
before. Luckily she was a champ and the ladies who helped me out stepped in a
few times to keep us going off the rails.
As you’re probably all wondering, it turned out awesome. The
girls decided they would be doing skits to showcase what they learned and were
absolutely hilarious. Instead of paying attention to the decorations and other
froufrou stuff, parents were watching their kids crack each other up on stage.
Much better! Now that it’s all done I’m left with a huge sense of relief and a
small ulcer. Just a few more month until the next one!
Glad it went well :) - Tiana (I'm signed into the other account and it shows Corinne's picture. Sorry!)
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