Realization: I'm Ruined

Part Two of Recent Events: DALLAS!

After all the turkey and treats, we JVs settled in for a long winter's nap. But this JV was too excited to sleep- for the first time since late July, she'd see her family the next morning!! It had been so long, the longest in fact, I'd ever gone without seeing my mom and dad! They came to visit me in Ireland sooner than this, so while I have an incredible, amazing new community here in Houston, I was really missing my family.

There's only so much Skype and phone conversations can bring- I was really struggling with feeling so much further away from my parents than I was used to, and a drive to Dallas was all that separated me from them. Woohoo!

I left our house around 10:30, after sadly saying goodbye to the San Antonio JVs, I hit I-45. The drive to Dallas from Houston is about the same mileage as Philadelphia to Providence, with significantly less traffic and higher speed limits. It's actually just significantly LESS in general- once you get out of the Houston Metro area, there is absolutely NOTHING. I drove through small Texan towns (Fairfield, TX, population 3,094), saw oil drills, and lots and lots of Texas longhorns.

About an hour and a half from Houston, the landscape really changed. Suddenly it was all big sky, but instead of the landscape just being green and brown, there was COLOR! I FOUND FALL IN TEXAS! The leaves were red, orange, and yellow- what a sight for sore eyes :).

I continued traveling through the cowfields, passed signs for "Cowboys for Christ" and the Cowboy Church, complete with a place to tie up your horse, and all of a sudden, like I was Dorothy making my way to Oz, Dallas appeared in front of me! Another 40 minutes and I was in Southlake, TX, where Kevin, Susan, and Conor live!

I got to see my Aunt Susan and her husband Jim as well, it was a great family reunion! After driving to Love Field to pick up my mom and dad, we all went out to a delicious authentic Mexican dinner and planned the next day's events.

It was so surreal to be with my parents in Dallas- it was great to be with them, but it felt so odd to be with them in Texas. I couldn't believe they were really here, but they were! Woohoo!

The next morning we went into the city of Dallas and did some sightseeing. We got to drive around the really wealthy neighborhoods of the city, saw SMU, and had an amazing lunch at the Oyster House, but the highlight of the day was when we went to the Sixth Floor Museum at the Texas Book Depository.

There was so much incredible history in that one building, and while it was pretty eerie to be standing in the room where Lee Harvey Oswalt allegedly shot JFK, it was so interesting! The exhibit was really crowded, but we still got to learn and see so much. As my mom said, you really leave with more questions than answers, and it's so incredible to me how little we still know about the events of that day 49 years later. We were there almost exactly on the anniversary, and the city is preparing for the 50th anniversary next year. We went and stood on the grassy knoll, saw where all the conspiracy theory guys sit and tell their stories, and the place between the trees from where people say they saw smoke coming after the assassination. He was so incredibly close to the end of the parade, which is even more heartbreaking!

I was completely fascinated by Jackie throughout all of the films and photos as well- she just kept going in spite of what had happened to her, getting off of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base with her blood-stained suit. She apparently got right to work on planning the funeral upon her return to DC, and remained strong in a time when most people would have fallen apart. I have always loved her sense of style and grace, and I can say now that I have even MORE respect and admiration for her after visiting Dallas.

That evening, we hung out in town square in Southlake, which was a lot of fun! It was finally seasonally appropriate weather in Texas- I was actually COLD! It was in the low 40s at night, and we walked around and shopped a bit before dinner. I have to admit that by that point I was suffering from a bit of culture shock- Southlake town square is beautiful, and full of high-end shops like Anthropologie and Lilly Pulitzer. I had a lot of fun shopping with my mom and Susan, but it was also a little weird- there were dresses that were 2 and a half times my stipend on the rack, and while I absolutely love those stores, it was a bit overwhelming.

There were SO many white people everywhere (myself included obviously, but as one of the other white teachers at school says, I sometimes have trouble remembering that I'm not Mexican), everything was clean and beautiful, and there was no sign of poverty anywhere. I realized that what was once my comfort zone had suddenly become uncomfortable to me, and smiled to myself as I remembered the JVC slogan: ruined for life.

Looking back on the past four months, I can absolutely say that I am ruined. I am so immersed in a place where I am face to face with poverty, injustice, and hunger each and every day. I can much more understand what it means to experience those things than I would have ever been able to before, and I'm comfortable in the uncomfort they cause- I am creating a change in the system, but in order to fight something, you have to know all about it. I now know poverty, and I'm ruined for life.

And I still have 8 months to go...