Well, yesterday afternoon was my first shift at smyrc as a volunteer. It was kind of low key, as I am part of the first shift of the week, and youth don't really start arriving until closer to the end of my three hours. But we had a few young people, and I started a rousing game of Scrabble, in between learning people's names and signing them in. I'm not allowed to go into detail about individual youths, even here. But they are a great group of kids.
I think the hardest thing for me is going to be the rule about boundaries. It's the one place where I messed up yesterday. I felt so bad. Automatically, because of my own experience, I offered to help someone with a restraining order instead of fielding them to the on-site crisis counselor first thing. My boss called me on it, but said it was a pretty common mistake. I felt really bad at the end, but I just got an e-mail from her saying that I did a really good job. So I feel better about going back. And, I can go back whenever they are open and stay as long as I want, not just my scheduled shifts. That'll keep me out of Sunny Pastures more often.
And that is all I can report for now.