Smart Girls

 Smart Girls...play rock band?

What can I say? I'm becoming hooked on Rock Band!

Smart Girls is  a program we run at the Center. It is meant to be held is small groups where young women can get to really know and support each other through the difficulties of adolescence. And so it is through Smart Girls that I remember many of these skill myself.

So I want to take a moment to talk about my mid-week group. There are 6 young women ages 13-18 in this group. We meet in the Art room or the kitchen..armed with popcorn, lucas and a bulletin board that is filled with pictures of women. Women like Delores Huerta, Indira Ghandi,  Naomi Shihab Nye, Nancy Pelosi, Rosa Parks, Michelle Obama, Audrey Hepburn (that was my choice!)...the list goes on.

And each week we discuss the lives of these women as we discuss various topics for the afternoon. We start with respect. We look at the women on the board and break down components of respect...personal boundaries, compassion, telling our own truth, etc. And we ask..do these women do this? Do we do this?

We discuss beauty. We wear fake mustaches as we discuss what beauty is. We dissolve into giggles when my ringtone (a whistle) whistles in the midst of a deep conversation on beauty. One of the teens looks up and says.."it's my mustache..I know it. No one can resist my beauty in this mustache" ..and then another "But who was it? Who whistled at us?" "It's the fish", I respond. We bust into laughter

They have granted me permission to tell this story and to post their picture in all their beauty.

So now when my phone whistles midweek. The girls in my group glance across the room at each other..they get a sly grin..they sit up a little taller. They are imagining the fish whistling at them as they sit in a circle of peers in their fake mustaches.

Yesterday we cooked spaghetti  as we discussed the importance of self-awareness. We created "I Am" poems. The girls took these poems to heart. They have asked me to print them and frame them so we can hang them on the wall to my room.
They have asked me to post my own poem. So, ladies, here it is.

I am passionate.

I am reckless.

I am a musician.

I am Nicole

I am quiet dis-chord.
with a revolutionary crescendo
Resolving in that singular clear tone
of a pure harmonic.

I am strong.

 

I am easily spooked.

I am often scared.

I am brave.

I am Nicole.

I am a binge reader
..a lazy writer

I am a lousy cook
..a fierce scrabble player.

A daydreamer.

I am intense.

I am loyal.

I am fun.

I am compassionate..

I am learning to trust,
by becoming trustworthy.

I am learning to be 

reliably real.

I am Nicole.