Hey MTDubberz! We're starting a new series called "Mover Monday." Mover Monday will be a series of testimonials from the Move This World community talking about their experiences with MTW. To kick it off, today's post features a story from Paula Olson, a PeaceMover in Washington, DC.
When I answered the call from Move This World to become a PeaceMover, I was absolutely honored, excited, and, I have to admit, a little nervous as well. What was I getting myself into?
When I answered the call from Move This World to become a PeaceMover, I was absolutely honored, excited, and, I have to admit, a little nervous as well. What was I getting myself into?
I was assigned to a middle school class of all girls. I was happy to have girls and felt I would have so much to share, so I optimistically told myself that I would be able to empower them by example. However, my first day on the job grounded me; I left the classroom with a heavy heart. After just one day, I realized how profound many of my students’ daily experiences are and how much – even as young teenagers – they have already been exposed to. Not to mention, many lack the wisdom to really understand and process their positive and negative experiences.
Week by week, lesson by lesson, I began to see into their world. I continued to ask myself: “Are they gaining anything beneficial from this experience? Do they feel differently? Are they even listening?” I got an answer one afternoon in a very unexpected way. I was facilitating our MTW lesson on Managing Stress. We spoke informally about what stress was, how it can manifest itself in our bodies, and brainstormed ways to handle stress without violence. This last point was key as many of the girls shared difficult stories of their experience with relatives, friends, and other individuals who turned to violence when they were under stress.
As the conversation turned more personal and each girl became more comfortable coming forward and sharing their ideas and experiences, I noticed one girl who remained relatively quiet. One of the girls asked me how stress has affected me. All the girls chimed in and said, “Yes, yes we want to know!” I chose that day to share a difficult personal story.
About a year ago, a man I knew, worked with, and trusted sexually assaulted me. Thankfully, I was able to get out of the situation and was supported by my organization to get help. However, for a brief period after the encounter, I was living in fear and to put it mildly, I was “extremely stressed” – stressing my intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. At one point, I experienced temporary paralysis in my legs and was unable to walk.
During my story, I noticed all the girls were staring at me, including the girl who had remained quiet throughout the lesson. The message I left with them was that I had to stand up for myself, I had to tell someone, and I had to realize that what was done to me was wrong because I would never want the same thing to happen to anyone else. I also said that if something like that ever happened to any of them, they needed to tell someone. If not their parents, then their teachers; and if not them, I would be there for them.
As the girls got ready to leave and I began to clean up, I noticed the quiet girl lingering behind. I smiled, told her to have a great weekend, and that I would see her in two weeks. She didn’t leave; instead, she came up to me and said, “The same thing happened to me.” I looked at her, torn in a mix of shock for her experience and extreme respect for her courage to speak up. The courage she possessed to share this with me and the courage she was living with daily was tremendous. She had gotten help and had since felt “better” about it, but she said she had never been able to talk about it at school or with many friends. She also had felt ashamed. We spoke a while more about it, and she confessed so much of what happened to her.
I left the classroom that day knowing that I had been placed here for a reason. Even if that was the only “break-through” I saw immediately and the semester ended without any more intimate moments like this, I knew what we do as PeaceMovers for Move This World is meaningful, important, and necessary.
From this one conversation, this one glimpse into how we can affect the children we work with, this one ripple, I know there are so many more growing. This year we have seen much tragedy as a nation, especially in our classrooms. When I teach through Move This World, I am working for change. I believe in the work we do and in the children we try to reach. I believe that we inspire real change – one young mind and heart at a time.
Paula Olson
PeaceMover 2012-2013