First Bon Air Meeting

Lexi Russell

I was very nervous on the car ride over to Bon Air to meet the kid I would have to talk to for five whole weeks. We both live very different lives and I was scared that I would not find anything to talk to him about. When we first arrived, they seemed slightly surprised that we were there. The screening process was a lot easier than I thought and they let us in the hallways virtually unsupervised which caught me off guard. When we arrived in the library, three boys and a guard were seated at a long table. All three of the boys’ faces lit up when we arrived and they suddenly seemed excited for this experience. This changed as we all sat down and their expressions seemed as if they would want to be anywhere but where they were now. Trenton and Jordan both seemed far more immature than Eric and Eric seemed a lot older than them both. When we split up, Trenton and I were paired together. He told me a story of a book he had read while in Bon Air and seemed to really enjoy the aspect of a happy ending. He passed over the conflict in the book and jumped almost immediately to the resolution which really spoke to me. He wanted to see a solution which really relates to his current situation. After we both told our stories, he wanted to tell me a lot about himself outside of the facility. He only has a month left and he is already creating plans for his life after he gets out. He wants to be a marine biologist and go to college for football. That made me look at him in a new light. He had goals for himself and I’m interested to see where life takes him. I did notice how Trenton never looked me in the eyes. I believe this was because he was just nervous about the whole experience. What really made my perspective change was when Eric was talking about his mentor. He not only called him his mentor, but also his advocate. He talked about how his mentor got him into writing poetry. It made me incredibly happy to know that there are people there for them to get them excited and optimistic about life. That was not what I expected. Overall, I am excited for the next few weeks. As much as I want them to learn from us, I can already see how I am going to learn from them.