Hopes and Fears

When we returned back to school this morning, our community welcomed us back with open arms and were very curious as to how the trip went. From my perspective, this immersion experience, like the ones that preceded it, was an overwhelming success in that we all learned about a foreign culture, formed bonds with the DLSBS community and one another, and learned some valuable life lessons along the way. While I'll be the first to admit that we faced some challenges that we could have handled better, these challenges became learning experiences for everyone involved.

Another View of the "Buffalo Jump"

As I reflect over the past week, a few lessons stand out in my mind:

• We must be willing to challenge ourselves and our assumptions. As you have read throughout the blog posts, our eyes were opened to a lived reality on the Rez for which our sheltered lives in Pittsburgh did not fully prepare us.
• Living in community is difficult at times. Living in cramped quarters with other guys we did not necessarily know or choose required us to sacrifice for the good of the whole. When our human tendencies took over and we caused injury to others in the community, we were required to ask for forgiveness.
• We must take risks in order to grow. For many of the guys on the trip, they had never experienced the classroom as a teacher. Following the innovative approaches modeled by the DLSBS teachers, they took risks to reach out to the DLSBS students. A correlated lesson is that we must get up after we fall. We do not always succeed, but we only fail when we do not grow from the learning experience.
• We must make ourselves vulnerable by assuming the role of fool for the common good. We spend so much of our time cultivating a certain facade that we oftentimes lose touch with our true self. Given my relatively reserved CCHS persona, I'm sure most of my students couldn't imagine me dancing along to "Boom Chicka Boom" with the 4th graders.

 

As we re-integrate into the frenetic pace of life at Central, I offer the following hopes and fears:

1) I hope that we remember the DLSBS students entrusted to our care for the past week and continue to pray for their success in school and in life. I fear that, despite our efforts last week and the dedicated work of the DLSBS staff throughout the year, some DLSBS students will fall into the sense of hopelessness that defines many lives on the reservation and will make negative life choices.

2) I hope that the shared Lasallian mission of our two school communities continues to permeate the daily life of the students, faculty and administration of our respective schools. I fear that our shared Lasallian lingo will simply become empty catchphrases that don't permeate our hearts.

3) I hope the immersion participants continue to reflect and pray over their experiences and that this ongoing processing will guide their ongoing discernment of God's call for their lives. I fear that the pressure-packed pace of getting caught up with their missed schoolwork and other commitments will push the memories of this immersion experience into the deep recesses of their consciousness.

Bro. Ray Bonderer, FSC

Mr. Sudnik and I appreciate the efforts of all of the trip participants and, based on our group reflection on Friday night, are confident that each participant is taking away improved self-awareness that they can integrate into their "normal" lives. I am especially thankful for Mr. Sudnik's leadership in organizing the trip on our end.

We are extremely grateful for the hospitality shown to us by the entire DLSBS community. We must thank Bro. Ray Bonderer, in particular, who dedicated so much of his time and energy to organize and facilitate much of our immersion experience. This experience was truly life changing and it could not have been realized without the many sacrifices made by our families and school communities.

 

 

Joe Allen
CCHS Director of Campus Ministry

Allen's "Controlled Fall"

 

 

 

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