Canadian Down Under

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Graduation Day

So I've written before about Big Sisters before but I've always been rather skimpy on detail in order to respect my Little Sister's privacy - but occasionally there are events that occur that just need to be blogged about. Like Saturday: graduation day.

See, the Big Sisters organisation out here has developed a new program for matches that have lasted over a year. Previously they haven't been managed well (or at all) so they've set up a new program to run events for us. It's a little more hands off than Big Sisters first year, but they're promising events that will suit some of the older kids - like my little sister who is 14 (going on 21...)

Anyway on Saturday they held a graduation ceremony for us as we 'formally' moved from Big Sisters to Y Grads. I was expecting it to be a little dull, but it was actually a pretty good day. The presentation was fairly short (perfect for us because we both have short attention spans....), the food was good and they had some really excellent activities for us: a photographer, some hand drawings and a cartoonist.

It was fun. A professional photographer was there to take photos of us (match by match) - which is great because my little sister (whom I'll refer to as 'H') and I like to take pictures, just not of ourselves, so as a result we don't have any of us together - but hopefully now we'll not only have pictures - but some good ones.

The hand drawings seemed kind of geeky at first but turned out really good. The idea was that each of us drew an outline of our hand on a blank piece of paper then we swapped and had to write something we liked about the other for each blank fingertip. Why it was so cool? H's 5 things about me:

1. I'm funny
2. I'm nice
3. I'm kind
4. I'm easy to talk to
5. I'm cool.

I read these over her shoulder and though not really the mushy type, I really was touched. I was so happy to see that she thinks I'm easy to talk to because its the best thing in the world for her and I'm just so glad she feels like she can talk to me. It's all good! (Okay, maybe a little mushy....)

But the best of all? They had a famous cartoonist there who was drawing caricatures of the matches and when it was our turn, he managed to dig out of H that she likes horses and while we were talking he noticed I had an accent. In answer to his question, I told him I was Canadian and the three of us kept chatting when I suddenly noticed he'd drawn H with a horse, but me as a Mountie!! Too funny. I got chastised in the end because I had to explain to H what a Mountie was. The cartoonist comment? "What kind of Canadian are you if you've known each other for a year and she doesn't know what a Mountie is??"

Too right. But the cartoon turned out great. So great that H has multiple copies and sizes of copies to keep in her room and her journal for school.

Isn't it amazing how the smallest things have the greatest impact? I always wanted to help, to add value, to give back - I just never realised in doing so I would get so much in return. I was asked to fill out a questionnaire on Saturday and one of the questions was 'what keeps you motivated' and without thinking I wrote 'our friendship' and that's when it struck me: H and I are really friends. The program is based on the premise that you're friends on equal footing - its not meant to be a 'teaching' or 'guiding' relationship - but just a friendship. And you know what? It worked - we really just enjoy hanging out.

I don't know who initially dreamt up the Big Sisters/Big Brothers concept - but I gotta tell you - its turned out to be everything they intended....and perhaps a little more. They deserve a medal.

1 Comments:

  • What a great experience! (glad the cartoonist decided to take the mountie route - I had an awful feeling he was taking things in the direction of the beaver...)

    By Blogger Gwyn, at 2:51 AM  

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