Action #9 Learning to Identify Allies

One thing that I've learned upon coming to college is that you can't do it all alone. I went through a lot of changes in my first semester of college and it took me a long time to adapt to the different atmosphere. But in a way I can't explain, a certain girl came into my life. It was the start of second semester and we had a lot of the same friends. We both had gone through a lot first semester and the effects were starting to wear on us. We ended up talking about these issues and realized we had a lot more in common than we thought. Immediately following, we became close friends and now we are roommates. One of the things we had in most common was our religion and faith. Kaylee Pichardo and I are both Methodist and it brought us together in a strange way.

Spring Break started to approach last year and Kaylee and I decided to take a leap of faith together. We volunteered ourselves to service in Gulfport, Mississippi through a local Methodist church here in Goshen for hurricane Katrina relief. We worked on various houses that needed redone after the hurricane and stayed at a Methodist church from the area. We spent our week long break growing closer to each other and to God. We learned a lot about each other and that we share a spiritual friendship that can't be broken.



Now as roommates, we have become spiritual friends and share with each other on a regular basis. We attend River Oaks Christian Church each Sunday and we are in the same Bible study here on campus. We also have frequent chats about how our spiritual lives are going and any other thing that might be on our mind.

Not only is Kaylee my roommate and my spiritual partner, she is also my study buddy. Last year Kaylee and I tried our hardest to sign up for the same classes so that we would be able to study together. We have Spanish together and oral communication next semester. So everyday, we study our Spanish vocab together and help each other with our homework, whether it is for Spanish or not. We made flash-cards for each chapter and study them before each quiz, we also share our books and sit next to each other in class. That way we can help each other if needed.

Through my friendship with Kaylee, I've learned that it is important to identify your allies and who you can trust in life. Kaylee and I have a friendship that will last a lifetime and I've learned a lot from her. As a teacher, it will be very important for me to identify allies within my work space. I now know what kind of person that should be and what kind of person I want it to be.