The
hardest part of being in I-YEL has always been explaining to others just what I
do in one sentence. You can call
I-YEL work. You can call I-YEL home. But it’s just too difficult to verbalize how
it can be both. We don’t just plant
trees, we don’t just make carnivals,
and we don’t just play games all day;
the problem with trying to explain I-YEL lies in its diverse culture, its ever-changing
influences and perspectives, which effectively transform the whole program into
something new every year, and make the program as impossible to predict as the
weather in San Francisco.
Take,
for example, the average I-YEL community meeting, one of the best examples of
I-YEL’s culture. A community meeting is generally defined as a fun, relaxing
way to bring the team back together at the end of a hard day of work.
The “average” meeting is crazy,
like a massive explosion of confusion and competition, revolving around water
balloons and/or epic, ridiculous, (but not inherently dangerous) dares. To
illustrate my case, today, Kathleen led the team
in a guessing game type of meeting, in which a team had one member blindfolded
and another member sent to the opposing side; the blindfolded person had to
guess the identity of the opposing team’s mystery guest. Only three clues were
allowed: hobbies, childhood history, and Sunday evening activities. Guessing
wrong resulted in a water balloon pummeling. The day ended with Jie sprayed in
the ear, Sintia sprayed in the face, and the pot of remaining water getting
dumped on Nathaniel, not to mention numerous other casualties.
INCOMING!!!! |
Community
meetings have definitely changed over the years, from straight-up water balloon
fights, to obstacle courses, meditations and reflections, and traditional cultural
games. I believe community meetings, when created with enough effort and
creativity, allow the team to grow as a team, but also learn about the person
making the meeting. An I-YELer can pour their heart and soul into their
activity, and the whole team will feel it in their passion and commitment. There
is no format or requirement for a community meeting, except that it helps the
team end the day on a high note; each leader gets a blank slate to fill up with
their activity; the best ones bring the team closer together and tend to leave the
team drenched.
Dennis Chang
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