Pretty much everything about being the president is boring — it’s on a form, or a list, or otherwise pre-defined, except for the part where I get to sign off on kids’ offenses. And make rules. That’s fun work. 

I have the great honor of inventing Community Service for Children who are Getting Life Experience and learning to be adults.  Well – the name needs work.   But the young people are EXQUISITE. And the dogs love them too. 

It’s a treat for me because I need our youth specifically. I find the kids to be the safest place to ask the dumb questions a creator and storyteller HAS to ask.  They’re a bridge back to the textbook when I’m doing research or projects. They know the shortcuts. Their bodies work. They think fast. They’re living the most raw part of the human experience — the rugged and brutal transition between the expectations of child and adult.  

Life is a learning experience. Screw up, not down. 

I cringe only for the lessons they can’t yet imagine, knowing that the one for which they’re currently “serving time” will not compare to some of the next.  

“Oh the shit they’ll step in…” 

Life lessons, as you get older,  don’t always come with the kindness of a judge who will list your offense in the buff.  Only the professional judges have the courage to face the judged with all the facts of the offense.  I have respect for the role of the judge as much as I do the rules. 

But I’m just as impressed by what the parents are producing these days. Seriously great kids. 

I am proud of how they’ve owned up, stood up and showed up, and I’m doing my part — showing ‘em to take a hit AND walk away with their heads (and senses of self) held high. I’m proud of them for their commitment to coming to Crazy Town and helping me in the trenches.  I admire their respect and dedication, but I do NOT think they should be taking a hit to their souls for learning mistakes. Ever.   I happen to know the embarrassment is the WORST PART of any best attempt, but it CANNOT keep us from a second.  

“Why do you think everyone assumes you don’t already feel like shit enough about this?” I ask them all. 

None of them has even produced a guess. Silence — from all of them; shrugs. 

If the objective is to harp on the mistakes they made, these kids are in exactly the right hands. I used

to be SO APOLOGETIC about learning mistakes..UNTIL DR. SHIELDS divulged this: “Ani! You are learning!  We do not expect you to KNOW everything already. “

This was a life changer, which I passed to every kid I encountered or tutored thereafter, because you can’t argue about how the universe works with your chemistry teacher!  It’s against the rules! 

The kids are newer drivers; sure they’ve had the class and the book, but they’re honing their situational judgment.  They’re seeing sometimes that the book — it doesn’t predict the dumpster fire situation you’re sitting in. 

You have to know how to take the hit from an offense to the rule book and accept it couldn’t teach the lesson you needed before you got the experience.  It’s a gut punch. 

I have shared no other quote with more children than that HUMDINGER I got from Dr. Shields. But while I was in her class it meant I could lay off myself about my test grades as being a reflection of my love and respect for the professor as well as her curriculum.  

Emailing her for help with my personal scientific experiments (for Rio) PROVED I was the only person putting so much pressure on myself about the damn test!  When she said we could ask questions, she meant it. She answered every one with so much kindness. I miss her still. I have a hundred more questions to discuss about chemistry. 3 months was not long enough to be her student, but I digress… 

It could be said that no one screws up or asks questions with as much volume or style as I do.  I put PANACHE on ‘em! NO ONE can out-fail me!   I have collected THE MOST!  

Community Service in Crazy Town is as much about owning mistakes for the absolute value of the experience, or contribution to the overall journey, as it is about ensuring we “cap them off” with a loving twist.  The error can NOT ever lay peacefully in the past if you don’t finish it by defining its home in your narrative.  

“What did you get out of the event,” I ask them to consider. 

“Does it change you? Does it help you?  How did you champ this failure?  Where does it lead you as a student of life?  “

The judge does not have time to do this time intensive and very valuable part of our civic duty and that is why I’m so glad to devote my administrative time to our beautiful, wonderful, perfectly inexperienced YOUTH! 

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