Letting God Lead

The following is a reflection written by Anna Amici, one of this year's Little Village House Volunteers.

Going into this year with Amate House, I told myself that I was going to be open to letting God work through me and lead me where He wanted me to go.  I wasn’t banking on Him turning my plans around and leading me in a totally different direction!

My mom joked when I started my site placement at Catholic Charities-West Regional Service as the coordinator of an after-school program and an Adult ESL teacher that I was going to fall in love with teaching and never be able to get out.  I laughed off her comment.  I was not going to change my plans of applying to Nurse Practitioner programs that I would dive into after my site placement was up.  However, as I started working with the students in my two programs, strange thoughts began to cross my mind.  Hmmmm. . . . I really seem to be enjoying working with these kids! Maybe there is something in this whole teaching thing!

As the year progressed, I pushed these thoughts from my mind.  I was struggling at my position as I started having to deal with an increased class size, students misbehaving and classroom management.  Yet, somehow, the idea of teaching still seemed appealing.  I felt as though I was making a real impact on my student’s lives and that my presence was actually helpful.  Despite often feeling overwhelmed by my job, I was able to realize that it was less the profession of teaching itself, but more a lack of experience on my part.  Even on my worst days with the students, there was still a thought in the back of my mind: Maybe you should go into teaching!  Naturally, I thought I was going crazy!  My kids don’t listen to me and my adult students have no idea what I am talking about.  Am I really considering this as a career?  But, the harder I struggled against the idea, the more persistent it became.  God was trying to tell me something, but I was very reluctant to let myself listen.

This past month, I finally realized that I was fighting a losing battle!  I could no longer fight against where God was leading me.  I am currently sending off my applications to teaching programs across the city (thank goodness for late deadlines) and hope to continue serving in that way.