Final visit to Bon Air

This was by far my favorite visit to Bon Air. The feeling of independence I got from not having anyone leading this session felt surprisingly good. I was expecting it to be very nervous and awkward because we didn’t have a set schedule of prompts to follow, but I ended up really enjoying it. Galvino finished writing his story and we talked about what he wrote. I asked him questions about it and I wrote those down to better understand the story. Although Professor Dolson said I should record the story the way Galvino told it, he told me he liked the way I revised it and he wanted me to keep it that way.

After finishing up his story, we talked about a bunch of different things. He asked me how my weekend went and I felt for the first time that he was genuinely interested in my life, which made me feel really good. We talked more about college and what life here at UR is like. I also talked to Trevor’s partner, Dazavier, about college because he was interested as well, mostly about the partying aspect. I had a really good time with the boys this visit and I’m looking forward to coming back in December to show them the completed book.

We also discussed coming back to Bon Air as volunteers to see the boys again. Tilley’s partner, Sage, actually brought it up and all the boys agreed that they would want to see us again. I think it would be great to be able to go back and talk to the boys more without a set prompt or instructions on how to conduct our visit. I think we are going to discuss this more with Professor Dolson in class on Wednesday.