Impact.

Once upon a time, Haley and I decided we were going to be more service-orientated this semester...so we went to the Y-serve, and signed up for Impact. Impact is a mentoring program. Basically, it pairs up two college kids with a child who might come from a rougher background, is handicapped, or maybe even just needs some good friends. After that, it's up to the college students to hang out with the kid at least once a week, get to know them, be a good influence, and have some fun.

I met Neil (my partner) last Sunday and we both met the child we were going to mentor last Tuesday. Tonight we had the first of a series of weekly hang-outs with Brady. Brady is the kid we're working with this semester. He's 15 and has high-functioning autism. He's also an awesome person. He's pretty small for his age, but he definitely kept reminding me he was 15 just from the way he talks. He's smart, polite, and has an opinion about most things and isn't afraid to express it. We went bowling tonight and had a blast. Brady had a very salty pretzel--he had to spit it out in the trash and gargle with water. The lady gave him a new one. All three of us thought it was hilarious. Bowling was great. I had the lowest score of all of us--but let's face it. Is this really a surprise to anyone? 

I'm really excited about this program and super pumped to keep hanging out with Brady. It'll be one of the things I look forward to doing every week!