Transformed by our Rebirth

The following is an Advent reflection written by Cristina Medina, one of this year's Little Village House Volunteers.

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” Fr. Pedro Arrupe wasn't crazy when he recited this prayer. In fact, he knew exactly what he was talking about.

Rebirth happens in many forms. Sometimes you can see it coming, or from out of nowhere it appears. Rebirth can stem from a negative experience that you want to mend, or it can blossom out of a beautiful revelation needing care to fully bloom. The idea of rebirth in the advent season is to renew yourself, start fresh, be born again, in other words – we have the chance to be transformed by God’s love.

This summer was a period of rebirth for me, or so I thought. 4 months. 3 road trips, 4 suitcases. A few plane tickets, and absolutely 0 idea of what August would hold – this was a transition, a road to rebirth – a new life in Chicago. Here to there. Student to teacher. Learner to instructor. But still, learner… always learner, as I have come to figure out. The beautiful thing about teaching is that I see rebirth every day from my lively, opinionated, sometimes rude, yet passionate and wholehearted students.

I see rebirth when the quarter ends and grades start over, and a light gleams from a student because they have a clean slate and a new opportunity to succeed. I see rebirth when a student re-enters a room after stepping out to regain composure – and they do. Rebirth occurs class to class, assignment to assignment, the rebirth of friendships, and as a phonics teacher, I see the rebirth of confidence when a student learns that they can read more words than they could the day before.
Part of being students and teachers at perspectives charter schools is living out the 26 principles of a disciplined life. My favorite, and quite possibly the most important principle is being reflective. This is where our rebirth comes from. We expect students to reflect on that experience – figure out how their actions affect themselves and others. This principle promotes rebirth, rebirth of everyday students facing adversity, teenage drama, and constant sass, into confident, determined, and kind scholars.

Though each day I see my students convert to different people with different ambitions for the week, I myself have been transformed in my own ways. In the beginning, I was very taken aback by the disciplined structure implemented at our school. While this discipline is important, I quickly learned that giving consequences for untucked shirts was not the best way to build relationships with my students. Instead of greeting a student with a gum chewing infraction upon entering, I learned to ask them about how their soccer game went. Rather than giving a student consequences for having their head down during the lesson, I learned to check in to see if things at home were still rough. I took an interest in my students’ lives. I gave them kindness and they showed their love back. We talk. We talk about their grades in other classes, essay topics, issues involving race, what they wish to major in, what it’s like to be a volunteer, what movies are out, and how they would change the ending to stories we’re reading. Not only are we learning to be better readers, better learners, and better teachers, we are learning to communicate, to show love, to be compassionate, and to know our purpose, and to live our lives with that purpose in mind. I cannot attribute my tactics to my student’s rebirths, but I can say that I had to learn the hard way, to renew my outlook, in order for them to experience a transformation in my class. I can say that being a witness to their rebirths, their passions, and their gratitude is what ultimately caused my renewal. My rebirth. Arrupe was right, I fell in love with teaching in a quite absolute way, and it gets me out of bed every morning. So I invite you, during this Advent season to fall in love, and as Arrupe says, it will decide everything.

Cristina shared this reflection as part of her community's Las Posadas Advent program this December.