Missing Salinas

Got an email today from one of the kids Ann and I had worked with in Salinas. Okay, got it today, but it was actually sent about a week ago, but I so rarely check the email at AOL anymore, I sometimes find out about things weeks after the fact.

This girl was just checking to see how we were all doing, so I filled her in. No BS, just the straight dope...it will be interesting to see if she takes it well. The kids back there sort of saw us as a package deal and Ann&Bill may not be digestible as Ann or Bill.

We were the Alcohol and Drug Resource Specialists assigned to a couple of schools in Salinas, California, by Sunrise House. Our jobs were multi-faceted. We were not only on-site counselors and educators, we were also the sponsors of the ADAPT (Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Team) clubs at our sites, Ann was the Friday Night Live Mentoring Coordinator for Monterey County, I was the Friday Night Live Coordinator, but because we were married, we sorta shared jobs...well, I did all the paper work, she played with the kids. I taught classes at my school...and I taught the classes at her school (she suffered from social anxiety) but she was dynamite as a one-on-one counselor, a role I wasn't always good at, as sometimes people find me a touch intimidating.

I miss the community and the work, there was something meaningful to be done (besides, I was making twice what I make today)...I could see real results in some lives (and anguished over my failings).

In addition to that workload we also both served as sporadic in-house counselors at Sunrise House (someone had to be there when the administrator was off coaching basketball at a local school) and I also ran and taught the YATV (Youth Alternatives to Violence) classes at both the Silver Star Youth Center and at Soledad High School, both of which were under the auspices of the Monterey County Probation Department. Kids who had been arrested for acts ofviolence had to do sixteen classes with me to get off probation.

I have, on the wall of my room the Harden Middle School sweatshirt that they gave me when I left (why did I leave the job? don't ask...) which was autographed (sometimes in uncouth terms) by dozens of my kids from that school.

I tried to find similar work around here, but the few such jobs are highly competitive...and despite my multi-year experience in the field, I can't compete with someone's cousin. Maybe if and when I go back to California...