This past Friday, a group of 26 2nd – 6th graders shuffled through the doors of 213 W. Institute Pl., bounded up the stairs both in anticipation of what was to come and to get as far away from the cold and wind as possible, and busted through the door of Suite 207 before stopping in their tracks. After a month of wondering, they had finally arrived at Open Books, and, for the first time in a long time, were utterly speechless.
For the past ten months, I have had the honor of being the Literacy Coordinator at the Glen Ellyn Children’s Resource Center, where I ran a creative writing and literacy program for an incredible group of sassy young individuals. During the first week of November, I gathered them into a classroom under the pretext that we were going to start a new workshop. What they did not know was that I was going to present them with a challenge: in 30 days, they were going to collectively write 50, 000 words, no more, no less. They were going to go up against the great NaNoWriMo beast.
National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) takes place during the month of November, and the challenge is quite simple: write a 50,000 word novel in one month. For the GECRC writers who participated in NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, they had individual word counts, ranging from 300 words for our ELL students to 4,500 words for two boastful 5th graders.
When the students were given this epic literary feat to conquer, it came as no surprise that they responded to it with a gigantic “WHAT?!” I myself had the same thought when I decided that they would take this on. When I came to the resource center in February, I was met with hesitation and a sometimes deep hatred for writing. Either it was too hard to use one’s imagination or too painful to hold a pencil (to which I responded with a quick “Lame”). As time passed, things slowly got better, but I always felt like something was missing. When I stumbled across NaNoWriMo’s website, I wasn’t sure if putting my students through this was the answer, but I figured that we’d just try it and see what happened.
For the first week, I’m pretty sure over half of the kids hated me. How dare I make them suffer though hand cramps, brain meltdowns, and the occasional paper cuts, they would shout. When they were told, though, that they would be able to go on a special field trip to Chicago if they made their word count, my motto of “No Whining, Just Writing,” fully took affect.
Needless to say, the students completed the challenge and even surpassed their word count by 2,000 words. While they were busy writing, the Open Books team was busy recruiting writing coaches to help the students edit and polish their novels. Because we’re all just one big family at heart, we reached out to our friends at 826CHI for volunteers, and in a matter of days, we had secured enough volunteers for our students to be able to work one-on-one with a writing coach.
After a two-hour trip from Glen Ellyn, we finally made it to Open Books. Once the students were settled in, they met their writing coaches and quickly set to work putting the finishing touches on their literary masterpieces. As I walked around the room, there was this incredible sense of joy in my heart with seeing my students writing with smiles on their faces instead of treating writing like they were slowly sinking into quicksand.
When it came time to read their pieces, their hands shot up faster than lightning. Kids were bouncing in their chairs, wiggling their hands, and squeaking out the requisite “Pick me, pick me, oh please, pick meeeeeee!!!!!!” While I was proud of all of the writers who donned Open Books’ legendary pencil costume, I was especially elated to see this young man rockin’ the #2:
When I first met Soka 10 months ago, he was like any other kid: hyper for hours, mellow for five minutes, or a mix of every possible emotion all packed into a 2nd grader. What struck me about him in particular, though, was just how bad of a day he could have. Without warning, he would completely shut down, and no amount of smiling or tickling could get him out of his funk. Writing was sometimes a struggle, too, and when he shut down, so did his imagination. Now, almost a year later, he happily volunteered to put on the pencil costume and bravely read his story about Froggy Boo to a room packed with peers and adults.
While I couldn’t be more ecstatic about how the night was going, there was this sad cloud lingering in my mind, as I knew that this would be the last night I would work with these students. I recently accepted a job with Christopher House, and my last day with the resource center just happened to coincide with our NaNoWriMo field trip. As the night came to a close, though, I realized that I couldn’t have asked for a better last day with such talented and lovely ladies and gentlemen. On the ride home, all of my fears about leaving them settled when Rosita said, “Being able to work one-on-one with a volunteer made me feel really special. Thanks.”
Now, as I take on this new challenge in my life, I have only one thing left to say to the students of the Glen Ellyn Children’s Resource Center: thank you for teaching me how to be brave.
Well the time has come to say goodbye. I hate goodbyes and usually try to avoid them and just do the “I will see you around” bit instead. However, with this internship ending, a goodbye is a must, a great way to say thank you to something that has meant so much to me and been such a huge part of my journey here in Chicago. 
Last Tuesday, a host of proud high school juniors descended on Open Books. They came by bus from Gage Park High School on the South Side, in a blizzard no less. We couldn’t have been more excited to see them here, hosted by their fearless teacher, Krystian Weglarz.
