My mentee’s name is Terry. When we first met, I could sense some awkward tension and I was a little nervous that we were not gonna hit it off right away. I’m the outgoing, ask a bunch of questions kind of girl...he’s the shy and keeps to himself kind of guy. Sure enough, the first day consisted of me bombarding him with questions, desperately trying to get to know him. He politely shook his head yes or no to just about everything I asked. I was trying everything—from asking about his family and friends to simple things like favorite color. On a little side note, Terry has a speech impediment, so with each response I had a little work to do just to decipher out exactly what he was saying. I kinda liked it. I was figuring him out, getting our dynamic down, building a relationship with someone I just met.
Now, three weeks in, Terry and I are buds. Every week he smiles when I walk in, gives me a fist bump, and starts telling me about his weekend adventures. We have gotten more social and comfortable together, and it’s always such a pleasure seeing him and all the other mentees every week at Artisans. This week we played wii bowling, and the look on his face when he got his first strike was something I will cherish so much as being his mentor. Something like this, even though it was so small, is what makes service for me so worthwhile and enjoyable. This is why I love being a Seton. We are emerged in such incredible opportunities surrounding service that I wouldn’t have been presented with otherwise. Thanks to Setons I got to meet Terry and we are only going to grow stronger as the year progresses which is something I am so excited for.
Moving aside from Artisans, we also had our monthly service event this past weekend as we cleaned the Logan neighborhood after a pretty eventful weekend...HALLOWEEKEND...spooooooky! We all got up pretty early Sunday morning and divided into groups, picking up trash in three block increments. With all the groups we had, we picked up so much trash that morning and I was so proud because we made such a difference. One student who was walking around noticed us picking up trash and screamed across the street, “That’s sick guys, thanks so freaking much!” We really didn’t do anything special; just put on some latex gloves and picked up whatever we saw on the ground. This upcoming weekend we have another service event as we are participating in an Annual Raking Blitz for Catholic Charities. Even though it is also a pretty early ordeal this weekend, I’m excited to see what kind of difference we can make this time around.
I love the group of girls and guys we have this year as Knights and Setons. We all work together so well and have so much fun with each event that comes and goes. We had a fun little Halloween party and my Knight brother Chase and I dressed up as Sandy and Danny from Grease. I loved seeing everyone’s couple costumes, and all the creative things people dressed up as. We are all getting to know eachother so well and it just makes being part of this group such an amazing experience. I am excited to see what the future holds!!
-Giovanna Brunetto
Seton of Gonzaga
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