Proud to be Jumpstart

It is funny how you don’t really realize how much of an effect Jumpstart and your kids have on you until you go away for a week.  For me, spring break couldn’t have come any sooner. It saved me at the exact moment that I felt like I was going to lose it from the stress of midterms and those last minute assignments that the professor wanted to get done in between the snow. Going home was literally the only thing I could think about, that is until Tuesday morning during spring break came around and I literally felt a little stabbing in my heart. Jumpstart for more than half a year was my therapy, and at some point around there, it stopped feeling like work and started being fun. And even though I was on vacation I felt like I needed to see our students. And I realized how much of an effect Jumpstart had on me. Its funny how I have come to feel more accomplished upon the completion of a cardboard mailbox that I just spent six hours making than on an A on an exam, even with the knowledge that in a few hours it will have been crushed by the weight of preschoolers who have decided to crawl inside it.

But this past spring break I realized how much I missed being in the classroom. With all the snow days and missed sessions leading up to spring break, I really hadn’t been in the classroom for two and a half weeks. I realized how much service meant to me and how much more accomplished I felt doing it. The feeling of achievement after a child recites back to you the story you had just read to them the session before, means more to me than a crumpled mailbox on the floor. Jumpstart has grown to be more to me than just a paycheck at the end of two weeks; it really has become my source of pride. I am proud of our children, I am proud of their success and growth, and I am proud of my own growth and success through this program. I feel as though Jumpstart is helping the children just as much as it is helping its own members. It instills in its members a sense of purpose and responsibility that I was lacking. And because of that I am proud to be a Jumpstart member.

~Sinead Brennan

Corps member

Team Inspiration