Holiday Hats

My job at NYCCD is not always particularly glamorous. I was reminded of this during the hours I spent on the stage of our special needs preschool wrapping toy after toy to be distributed to each of the 80 students (plus some of their siblings), snacking on chocolate covered pretzels and Pepperidge Farm cookies and jamming to the non-stop Christmas music on 106.7 lite FM. I was reminded of this yet again as I cheerfully donned a cheap Santa hat at the NewYork-Presbyterian pediatric clinic so that I could better fit in with the other festively-dressed registrants behind the front desk checking in the children for their doctors' appointments. I have learned again and again that meeting the needs of my organization often requires this foregoing of glamor. The school's holiday season needs, among other things, required a food preparer to heat up the dishes for the International Feast, and an amateur graphic designer to create the holiday party invitation: I wore both of these hats this year. Yet as I sit in the pediatric clinic waiting room and listen to a mother describe how her young daughter cries almost every night now that her father no longer lives with the family, or to a mother who is completely overwhelmed by her son's behavioral problems and believes that he may be bipolar, I realize that this principle applies just as much on an individual level as it does on an organizational level. The needs of others are oftentimes far from glamorous, and this fellowship has been a window into the lives of those who have experienced much more hardship than I have.  At times I am saddened by my own inability to help some of the children I encounter--what can I do when a mother of a three-year-old who is barely speaking refuses to bring her child to see the psychologist because she believes she is fine? However, sometimes meaningfully meeting the needs of others simply requires one willing ear in a room full of crying babies to listen to a mother's concerns and tell her that someone is here who can help her. It requires one person to set fears, preconceptions, and judgment aside; meet the family where they are at; and reassure them they are not alone. I am proud to say that I have worn this hat this year, and I look forward to continue wearing it in 2013.