Bon Air Reflection

In class we had discussed visiting the jail many times and even before that in the FYS Storytelling and Identity description, I was excited by the fact that we were going to be visiting a juvenile detention center. Yet, I didn’t realize fully that I was going to a jail until the bus pulled up to the prison and I saw the barbed wire and jail buildings that reminded me of Shawshank Redemption or the more popular Orange is the New Black. This realization continued when we filled out the paperwork for the fingerprinting and background check. The woman was strict about filling out the paperwork properly. I had been taking this service project lightly and didn’t feel at first like I needed to be strict about the paperwork (which is in part because I couldn’t think of a third contact), but the truth is we are talking about a jail. I think the severity of what we are doing hit me when we visited Bon Air. It made me even more excited to be doing what we are because I better understand how important it is that we can truly make a difference in the lives of the children with whom we meet and they will certainly make a difference in our lives as well.