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Anytime a friend or family member asks me about my job at Escuela de Guadalupe, I always answer with, “I can’t believe I get to wake up and go to work every day.” It is a blessing that I get to answer these questions with such enthusiasm and passion. I suppose when you believe in the cause you give yourself to day in and day out, work ceases to feel like work. I have been with the school’s Development Office for just over a year now, and there are too many joy-filled memories bulging to recount. They amass from the delight of coaching our cross country team to the simple daily pleasure of eating lunch with our staff in the teacher’s lounge. Yet no Escuela memories engender as much magic for me as they do in the month of December.
Just in this season alone, our students have honored Our Lady with fresh roses and lilies, drummed along with traditional matachines dancers (whilst snacking on traditional, Mexican sweet bread) and presented the Escuela version of “Las Posadas”; filling the school hallways with student song as Mary and Joseph go to all classrooms searching for a place at the inn. Our Middle School’s varying grades worked together to decorate their homerooms with themes such as “Santa’s Workshop”, “Winter Wonderland” and “Christmas Morning” to name a few. Company partners have delivered presents to our students- decked in Santa hat and all.
Today our children performed in the Christmas Program, singing carols in both Spanish and English. While this month has been full of wonder, creativity and fun, I also know that the Christmas season can sometimes be compounded with busyness, loss and pain for many. What is magical in the Christmas carols today will not be to dismiss whatever life brings, but to sing anyway, however we show up this week. It was an afternoon for our multicultural community to gather, no matter what part of the city, to sing anyway, simply because we can. It is this enriching experience of Advent - the anticipation and coming together that consistently puts me in a place of gratitude. I can’t believe I get to wake up and go to work every day.
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