Blog with HOPe

By Amy Mirabito

It’s funny when we ask kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Kids are usually so open-minded and say whatever is on their mind.  My friend’s son said he wanted to be a ninja; imagine if you could be a ninja!!!!  When I was little I would reply, “The first woman President.” Now, I am really not interested in politics at all.  I think that I spent a lot of time focusing on what I was going to do with my life instead of living it. I decided to change my outlook on life.  I thought, well whatever is going to be will be, I just have to keep an open mind and take some action. My dad always said, “do something you enjoy doing everyday.” 

I spent some time as a teacher at The League School, a school for kids with ASD.  At first I thought, wow I never wanted to be a teacher! Then I thought, am I capable of helping these kids? Well as luck would have it I gave it a whirl and I loved it.  I really got to see how big the little gains were.  I finally got it; this is what it is about.  Do something that makes you happy, dad was right!  I learned that anything is possible for these kids and then realized that anything is possible for myself. 

So get this, I was doing a food drive with my class for My Brother’s Keeper down the road from the House of Possibilities and we stopped in to see HOPe and were given a tour.  I spoke briefly about helping out a few Saturdays in the kids program. Again, I got to see where the little gains are so big for our kids. Fate stepped in again and a few months later they were looking for a director, and there I was. And just like dad says, I am doing something that I enjoy doing everyday.   

We have a lot of volunteers from Stonehill College and this partnership is a wonderful thing.  I share my experience as to how I got into the field and how I didn’t know what I wanted to do until I experienced it.  This partnership with Stonehill will open the door for these students to find out some things about themselves, hey, maybe some of them will love it and join us and maybe some won’t but I guarantee that each one of us here will learn something from these kids.  They continue to teach me more than I could ever teach them.

So what do you enjoy that you aren't doing? (yet!)