So, just finished a long week of reading applications at work. Lots of caffeine involved, but I love it. It's always inspiring to hear what applicants have done with their lives, what they look forward to achieving. I always wonder if I would make the cut, though my boss reassures me with a bemused smile that I would be "competitive" (which I assume means I would not make the cut!) :D

Possibly my favorite part of reading our application is Essay #3.

Essay #3: Now, a chance to go off-script. There’s a scene in American Beauty (1999), shot in slow-motion, where a white plastic bag appears to be dancing in the wind (click here to watch that scene)—a quiet, lyrical moment that balances out the heaviness of the film. Choose one tangible detail in the world that helps you stay balanced and explain why you chose it. (300 words)



What is balance, anyway? Balance, especially when working with adolescents, means distancing myself from the day's challenges and situations while still examining my day from another, more introspective angle.

After Andrew refuses to listen to anything our team says, after Tommy disappears, only to show up halfway across town, after Joey punches a hole in the classroom door and gets sent to the office again – I find my balance sitting on the fire escape outside my apartment (where I am sitting right now). From my perch above the world, I am far enough away from that day's work that I can think about what happened – what would I do differently, given what I know now? What of today's events was out of my control? What did I do well during the day?

While I am, to some extent, alone with my thoughts, I can still hear the sounds of my neighborhood – reggaeton bumping down the street, planes overhead on their way to JFK, neighbors talking as they walk by – which serve not only to ground me in where I am, but to remind me of my work, which, although not immediately in front of me, is still present in the sounds of the city around me.

Runners up: running, catching up with Peace Corps friends in far off lands through Facebook, reading my boss's dissertation.