to. My co-worker freaked out and pointed fingers at me,
showing that I had failed. My boss took a deep look at my
work and shrugged it off without being harsh about the
whole situation. He knew and I knew what had to be done
next. After my big scene of “I’m sorry,” and being harsh on
myself, I took control of the situation and worked on fixing
the piece that I had messed up. Instead of paying attention
to my co-worker finger-pointing the blame, I ignored her
and continued working. At the end of the day, I felt proud
that I didn’t let this failure get to me and instead learned to
do what I had to do to fix Aurora.
I know my work isn’t much different from other life
experiences. Just like a boat builder works on a team,
uses different tools to get their work done, specializes on
a specific task to get something done or learns something
new every day, it is the same in other opportunities, jobs
or teaching environments. Rocking The Boat has been
my rock from the start and the experience of making
rowboats—yes: building rowboats from scratch—will
definitely benefit and be a treasure to me in the future.
Every end-of-semester, whether spring, summer or fall, there
is a big celebration where all of the workers huddle around
each other at the shore of the Bronx River to watch our
accomplishments float on water. It is a tradition to bless the
newly-made boats with water from the river and push them
towards the water to take them on their first row downriver.
I will never get tired of our unknown and small tradition of
blessing these boats to watch our boats be healthy enough
to float in a big city.
6 Train Volume II: 2013–2014 |
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