My fifth week at the RIC was both fairly uneventful and full of ups and downs. I have a good routine down now where I get to work from home for the first few hours, come into the office midday to help my coworkers with anything they need or work on various projects, and then set up for summer reading. This means that most days and tasks go very smoothly! However, this week I had one project I was working on that did not pan out the way I had hoped.

I was looking for local places where we could purchase marketing materials and thought I had found one that would work. I was working with the sales representative there to design and purchase vinyl stickers for our volunteer appreciation party next week and was about to send a deposit payment when they accidentally sent the samples for the sticker designs. They were rather disappointing and not at all worth what we would have been charged for the designs. I could have made better designs for free in Canva! While it was a bit of a bummer to realize that we would not have the stickers ready in time for our party, I am so glad we didn’t put down any money before seeing the designs. I am not sure exactly what important lesson this teaches me except for reinforcing the importance of carefully reading reviews! Not everything works out perfectly and that is okay.

On the other hand, there were little successes this week that made it great. I was able to help a coworker set up an extension for Google Voice that allows her to send messages to large numbers of people without starting overwhelming group chats while still avoiding the time consuming process of texting people individually. I was happy to see her excited about saving hours of work on this and future projects. It was good to feel a part of something that helps the organization gather important data for grants and reporting.

I also got to help this same coworker conduct mock interviews for the neighbors in her job readiness class. This was great because I got to know a few of the neighbors more personally and help them get over the jitters of interviewing for a job. It is amazing to hear these individuals’ life stories. Many of them have bachelors or masters degrees and are working towards having their degrees and years of hard work recognized in the states. This is called equivalency and is a very involved process that many New Americans go through. One of the women I “interviewed” worked as a civil engineer in her country for 32 years before coming to the states. While candidates like her with years of experience are common, it is very difficult for them to obtain jobs that are similar to what they did in their countries. Many of them find work in hospitality or food service even though they were doctors or teachers or engineers in their countries. I admire the hard work and patience they possess. I think this is an important reminder that this country consistently treats immigrants and refugees horribly. No matter where they are from, or what they did before arriving in the United States, they are deserving of opportunity and dignity the same as those of us who were born here. Immigrants and refugees contribute so much to this country and make it exponentially better in so many ways. Love on your neighbors, y’all!