The easiest way to get to 1841 North Laramie Ave from Austin, Chicago by 10 AM every weekday without a car is to take the Green Line at Austin via Ashland/63rd, get off at Laramie & Lake, then take bus 57 towards Grand/Latrobe and get off at Laramie & Bloomingdale. In theory, this journey should only take about 33 minutes: a 5-minute walk to the station, a 12-minute train ride to Laramie & Lake, a 14-minute bus ride to Laramie & Bloomingdale, and a 2-minute walk north towards the building, meaning I could leave my house at 9:20 AM.

Public transportation in Chicago is a rite of passage for newcomers. Despite its numerous benefits
over private car usage, it can be difficult to navigate. I had visited Chicago a few times and only used the trains, which are easy to navigate with clear stations, platforms for delay and inactive train updates, and CTA personnel available for inquiries. This time, however, I had to learn how to use the bus system, which was unfamiliar but could cut up to 20 minutes off my transit time. In other words, I missed at least one bus every day during the first week and boarded the wrong bus going in the wrong direction three times that same week. It was humbling.

At first, I was really annoyed with myself, wondering, “Why am I struggling with this? If I’ve triple-checked everything and still get on the wrong bus, what am I missing? Should I just Uber it?” Then, I became frustrated with the people around me who, despite hearing my struggle, offered no new
information on how to navigate the system. My frustration stemmed from insecurity. What is wrong with me that I can’t figure out how to use the system efficiently when so many others just seem to know?
While it didn’t overwhelm me, by the end of the week and the start of the next, I accepted that my
commute would be extra long until I could see the patterns in the system.

And I did. By the end of the second week, I knew everything: which buses to take, which ones
ran on time, which ones rarely showed up, and what time specific lines stopped running. It was liberating.

This experience with public transportation, however, is not uncommon. On the contrary, it is a shared
experience among those who aren’t Chicago natives. While I didn’t receive great advice the first week, I
did hear many stories of people having similar experiences and recounting the ridiculous adjustments they had to make when using the system.

As I recapped the week with my mom, it hit me. Every time I get a glimpse of what my calling
could be, insecurities chase me, and I find myself lost in the confusion and uncertainty, often aborting
missions. I prefer to take the Uber rather than figure out a system that could take 3, 4, or even 5 shortcuts to reach my destination. Realizing this, I started to be more aware of what I was avoiding at my internship and recognized that I haven’t been as open as I thought I was to this new and unfamiliar space. It was eye-opening but motivating.

Long story short, if I leave my house by 8:55 AM to catch the 9:06 AM train via Cottage Grove at
Austin Station—which goes in the same direction as Ashland/63rd and runs approximately every 6
minutes—I can transfer to bus 57 towards Grand/Latrobe at 9:25 AM. This bus always arrives on time,
unlike the 9:32 AM or 9:42 AM buses, which have spottier arrival times and more delays. Getting off at
Laramie & Bloomingdale, I’ll arrive at the office with 15 to 20 minutes to spare. During those spare
minutes, I take the time to prepare and create a list of goals for the day, reminding myself of what I want to achieve from this experience and how I will need to go about it, allowing the process to flow naturally.

-Noemi Vela, By the Hand

For my second blog in two weeks, I was really struggling to find an experience that I did not touch on the week before this. As I was reflecting on my summer, already at the halfway point of this experience with Jacob’s Ladder and the CAPS Fellowship, I was thinking about what is a lesson I have learned.

I feel that the biggest takeaway I have had is how much better of an experience is gained when you simply are present in the moment. In our world today, there are a million things that can distract you when you are bored or to pass the time. When I first started at Jacob’s Ladder, I often found my
mind wandering or thinking about how much time till lunch, or when I get to go home. It
was not that I was not enjoying the work, I was just distracted. I was really struggling
with this when I thought back to the key part of the CAPS Fellowship, reflection.

As I was reflecting on my first couple days, I knew I needed to figure out a way to be less distracted. I decided no matter what, I was gonna just throw myself at all the work I could possibly do and really focus. By week 2, I felt I was already improving. I noticed when I was doing administrational paperwork and doing therapy sessions with the patients at Jacob’s Ladder. I realized if I just focus on fully immersing myself in the work, time flies quickly and you end up enjoying the work even more.

This focus on being in the moment became key when we had a big deadline this past week for an important grant for our company. The deadline for the grant writing that myself, and another one of
the interns had to do, got moved up and we were in a time crunch. I felt stressed at first, but then I realized with what I had been practicing, it would be okay. By using the reflective portion of CAPS and just the need to improve, Natalie and I were able to get the grant done in plenty of time and we submitted it the next day.

CAPS has really improved my work habits and just understanding of myself through reflection, and how important being in the moment is.

• Colin Graves, Jacob’s Ladder Pediatric Rehab

They say that those who can’t do, teach. That’s never made much sense to me. How is someone supposed to teach something they’ve never experienced? I mean, you have to at least know the knowledge if you’re trying to pass it on. On the other hand, teaching is just another form of communication, so having a receptive audience does make a huge difference. Luckily for me, the first- through third-grade students enrolled in the Little Village READS summer program at Erie Neighborhood House are definitely there to learn.

Having never worked with children before (or even taught groups in a formal setting, for that matter), I’d been pretty anxious before starting my internship at Erie House. For the week before the students started, my time was occupied by emails, lesson plans, supply checks, book shelving, and everything else I could think of doing to prepare and make sure that the summer would get off to a smooth start; frankly, it had me kind of worried. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I could only fear the worst: brainrotted Gen-Alphas who wouldn’t be able to sit still and focus on anything for more than thirty seconds if it wasn’t plugged into the Internet.

Come Monday, I realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong. As the kids trickled in from drop-off, I did my best to introduce myself and welcome them to what will essentially be their summer school, thinking that they’d be dreading every additional minute in a classroom past the regular academic year’s last bell. Instead, they were immediately finding ways to entertain themselves, looking through our bookshelves, drawing, solving puzzles, and eagerly chatting away with their friends as soon as they walked in the door. Not a screen in sight. One of the boys even asked me if he could go outside to check on the garden and water the vegetables; I was more than happy to oblige him. In that moment, I felt better about the next generation than I ever thought was reasonable.

As the day went on, I got to know the students and see how they learn; not a one of them is without curiosity. Whether it’s from the books they choose for free reading, the way they participate in lessons and projects, or the wide-ranging questions that pop out their heads (what’s the sun made of, where do cicadas come from, Messi or Ronaldo for GOAT, etc.), there is a constant reminder that people really do crave a sort of understanding for the world around them. That shared sense of wonder is precisely why I applied for CAPS in the first place. Teaching or learning, it’s all part of what gives purpose to being human, no matter how old you are. In terms of vocation, personally, I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be a part of that wonder.

• Lucas Lennen, Erie Neighborhood House