I really dislike having to watch them all go every 6 months, but I love getting to hear about the changes that this program has
caused in their perspectives, in their approach to the world and their future work. The last week is always that shot of adrenaline that reminds me why I love this job and believe so much in learning from the stories of the underdog, in the growth and change that comes from living and learning in community, in looking at your own country, own people from a new viewpoint.The things we hear during the process of the semester can be at times horrifying and overwhelming, and yet, people continue on with their struggle.
Personally, if I try to look at it all at once, I'm almost dizzy. However, last week as I sat and listened to the students, one by one, talk about transformation and awakening things felt slightly closer to 'changeable'. This work of changing the status quo is slow and frustrating and seemingly impossible at times but important and honestly, I hope that it's always what I'm dedicated to. Whatever form it takes.For the students who just left, and those who left a year ago and 7 months ago, thank you for taking this journey and taking it all to heart.
Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, essentially an apostolic work, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the righteousness, and the truth of the work itself. And there too a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.- Thomas Merton
