My passion project

There is so much hulla baloo about finding and doing work you love - work you can do and not expect to get paid...as Nike says you Just Do it *insert tick sign here*........So I have just remembered that I was not paid for a tutoring gig I did a few weeks ago...some guy who was studying for his licensure exam....I met him at Starbucks.Jonathan was his name.I dont know why I was drawn to helping him - usually I can tell in the unquiry emails how serious the students are.Maybe its coz he shares a name with my older brother who is such a gentle giant.Maybe he sounded so despearate maybe its coz he told me has a wife and three kids and would like to support his family better.Either way the first meeting we stood each other up we were at starbucks on different sides of the world and the phones were not going through..So we rescheduled - he told me I can charge him for that one hour that we failed to meet - which pays more per hour than my regular job...and I told him no way dude I am not here for your money I am here to help you reach your goal...so we met again...I walked him through as I do all my tutees my work is not to teach content I am essentially giving you confidence to pass the licensure exam...I tell all the tutees the general spill go with your instinct the first answer is always correct. I tell them to get a lot of rest the night before I tell them they know they stuff its just a standardized test - anotehr persons opinion of what you already know..well he gave me a 3.5 stars not the greatest but I dont really care about the ratings or the pay and I guess this what they mean when they say do work you love and it will work for you....I love being a career , scholarships, college advice, subject matter coach.I like seeing someone excel at something they thought they could not do...Sunday I get a call from a lady who had got my number from a friend - she was taking the board exam today after failing - actually she is the reason I am blogging I just texted her and have not heard back...she must be a wreck trust me the two days after you do yoru boards are filled with sleepless nights...I have been planning for today as though it was my own day - I wished her well yesterday and told her to get rest...so her no reply is a bit worrying we will find out in a day or two if she passed.But I think my point is I think if I really set my mind to it being a life/subject/college/career coach - I am yet to find one name for my title can be something I can do enjoy get paid if all this healthcare biz fails

addendum to note::
SHE PASSED SHE PASSED!!!I have been on a high this whole shift..yani she sent me the text and I was jumping for joy like a proud parent... I am so happy and to think that all I did was encourage her to bring out her A game stuff she already knew she had it in her...Gosh this is how our highs school teachers used to feel when we would get As in KCSE...you cant explain it..its a sense of accomplishemnt kind of thing

Martin Luther King must be turning in his grave...

I remember seeing the word sequester when I read on of the best John Grisham books of all times - Runaway Jury...I had no idea what it meant but it sounded like some secret undercover procedure that juries of high profile cases go through so their decision is not altered by outside sources.So basically you are locked in a tiny room - no cell phones no internet no access to social media and I think you are allowed a phone call a day from a family member - which is screeend and you are not to discuss the case processings at all.So anyway the last couple of weeks the jury that has been trying what some have called the "civil rights case of this decade" this has been between the state of Florida v George Zimmerman.The jury has been undergoing sequesteratiion and they just returned their verdict......I was walking into the gym at ten fifteen pm July 13th when in bold I see on the TV screens Zimmerman found not guilty of murder..My heart sunk to the ground I felt as though someone had punched me in the stomach...rushing to the the locker room I changed and found the nearest bike under the CNN screen.I looked around and everyone around me continued on their treadmill jamming to their Justin Bieber oblivious of the news whistling like just another day in paradise...So anyway as I listened my heart sunk lower and lower...the jury claimed they did not have enough evidence to find him guilt of the charges of manslaughter...I am not a legal guru  but as Shelmith says the plaintiff should have filed a lesser judge i.e first degree murder...I dont know all that stuff intent no intent bla bla bla bla but all I can say is it was a sad day in America for champions of the cause *fist in the air for the black power*....I went for the National slam two weeks ago - a good friend of mine from California was performing - shout out Da Poetry Lounge and my friend from Jersey who I went with after one of the poems on the rights (or lack thereof0 of black people stated wow they are so angry - this is not the America I live in...and I was a bit taken aback by her statement as I felt there was some level of indifference nonchalance shrug off the whole thing kind of attitude...I personally did not grow up knowing black from white however it would be against my interests to not feel strongly about the way young black men are treated (or mistreated) by the hand of the law..like I have blogged before I have two friends who were profiled a while back by the State police at college like literraly stopped by cops and asked incriminating questions about an incident just coz we were around the campus late at night.Liike really dude we are from the library??!!so anyway here are a few videos that speak more on this from Javon to watoto from the nile tribute to trayvon...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Utk_g7y4A

and here  is one of the guys from the Cali team Da Poetry lounge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Wf8y_5Yn4

Just another day in the factory....

 So I have a patient...his name is D....I just found out two weeks ago D was a doctor way back when not medical doctor but doctor of something...D is dying. actively dying if I may say so...I also know Ds wife Lady S..so I met Lady S when D was fist admiited to the floor a few months ago...Lady S is always in to visit with D every day and everytime she comes to stand at my cart and give me a whole spill on how she has noticed something new on D - he seems to be jerking a lot today he seems to be clapping a lot today..."Side effects of the meds his on for the Parkinsons" I tell lady S tommorrow he comes in he seems to be happy today he is responding....and on and on we go day in day out...sometimes it gets annoying when she interrupts you in teh mdidle of a med pass but other times all she needs is someone to listen to her...So a few days ago D started declining and declining fast - bloody urine not eating temps in the 100s.I tell the aides the care they will give D the next few days will be the most important care they have ever given him in all the while he has been here,I tell them to go in there hold his hand talk to him tell him what they are doing before they turn him...so yesterday I picked up a double shift to stay through the night...just before lady S leaves for the night she whispers tommorrow is my birthday please dont tell anyone.I wish her a happy birthday as I give D a look in my head thinking...D you better not die on me and Lady S tonight on her birthday.She sings songs to D that they used to sing together she tells me how they used to hold hands as they sung the songs and danced - how he would always say her singing was beautiful even though she knows her voice has a missing cord or two - her face turns pink filled with so much fond memories..I turn away to blink away the tears and she leaves......So I keep checking on D through the night he is still there - temps still up the roof, periods of no breathing for a good two minutes which made me say okay this is it until I hear that deep snore again.... I stay with him a while wondering where his soul is - is he trying to make it through to his wifes birthday? he makes it through the night...I pray his wife will get to see him today...I leave and go home D made it to Lad S ninetieth birthday I wonder if he will be there when I get on shift tommorrow....like I said just another day in teh factory....

The moral test of a government is how it treats those in the dawn of life the infants and children, those in the twilight of life the elderly, and those in the shadows of life the sick teh needy and the handicapped - Hubert H Humphrey..

Addendum to note:

Soooo just as an addition to my little story up here...so remember Dr. D....well he died.I was in the middle of shift report and the chaplain comes into the room and says we need a nurse to pronounce.So we went in there with the morning nurse shut the door and immediately we saw him we knew he had gone.The beautiful part was his wife Lady S was right by his bedside as she had said she wanted to be when he passed away.The chaplaian told me they were singing all his favorite church hymns and the love songs they used to dance and sing to with the wife and as soon as they were done they looked at him and he was gone...he liyeally slipped into the after life in such peace with his wife by his side...and he waited until the day after her birthday wow this thing called life..