Work had been slow, which has allowed me to truly reflect on my motivations for applying to a second JV year.
How does living as a JV reflect who you are and who you are becoming? How has this experience led you to apply for an additional year? What are your apprehensions about participating in additional year(s) with JVC? What challenges do you foresee?
My brother just came home from a year long deployment in Afghanistan and decided that in this JV year I am learning how to be a good person, his statement made me think, “was I bad person before?” My outlook on so many things has changed in the past four months. I have always been involved and focused but I am learning that I may not have been focused on all the right things. For example, I have always been a girl who loves to shop but through simple living I am truly learning the different between needs and wants. Physical things are not a priority like they were in my past, which has been liberating. This is just one way I am already seeing growth in my life.
My community teaches me daily, about myself and life in general. In learning about each of them and being challenged in a loving and nurturing environment, I am learning where I can grow, but I am also learning about who I am and how there are many things about myself that I have been over looking. These strangers I met four months ago are becoming my best friends. My job has opened my eyes. I am challenged emotionally each day as I hear my clients explain, often in embarrassment or shame, their legal problems. At Legal Service Alabama we focus on four legal areas: housing, public benefits, consumer issues, and domestic violence. These areas focus on the most basic needs for a sustainable livelihood: a roof over your head, an income, a life free of abuse, etc. This amplifies my new view of the difference between wants and needs.
Things in life, relationships in my life, have become so much more meaningful as I have been exposed to the ugliness of this world. I am often the first person the client speaks to regarding their legal issue and it has been an amazing process learning to listen and support my clients as they discuss these difficult situations in their lives. My community is also teaching me about listening. It has been a slow process but through conversations we are learning how each person expresses their needs, receives advice, but more importantly we are learning how we individually show support and how each person seeks support.
In these past four months I have given away half my clothes, I have opened up my heart to God’s love, I have felt emotionally strained listening to the struggles of my clients, and I have laughed and cried with my community. All of these things, along with countless other experiences, have helped me grow and in this growth I have been happy. I want to do a second year because, as hard and uncomfortable as a JV year can be, it has made me happy.
An additional year will have many challenges. It will not be this year and that will be the biggest challenge. I will be a new place in a new job with new people. I have learned that the legal field is not where I see myself after this year is over. Once a client needs legal assistance they are already in some state of emergency. I would love to be involved before legal action has to take place, so I am most excited to experience a new field of service. Being able to continue on to another year with the four values but in a new social justice position is my biggest motivation.
I love my community and leaving this year, whether for an additional year or for the real world, will be difficult. In a second year there will be a brand new transition period, the period I just finished, but in that time I have learned so much and I know that there will always be more for me to learn and experiences for me to share. There will be daily challenges in an additional year, but there are daily challenges in this current year. I have already grown and I love the person I am becoming, an additional year will allow me to grow in new ways while influencing and learning from new people in a new place.
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