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I’m having a joint-farewell potluck this afternoon with my office spouse. I’ll still linger in the halls until next week, and am already working on a contract to continue as a hired gun-dog-pony-show after my formal resignation. But She will go on to her new supervisory job as of Monday! No rest for the wicked. Who am I to judge-I’m already overlapping with my new jobs as well.
But with O.S. gone, this is truly the end of an era. We took in so many interns together and groomed them, our "kids" keep serving the community as we go on. Like real kids, most have thanked us, some have cried with us (um, admittedly at times even because of us), surely some have cursed us!
No longer will there be surprise banana breads, brownies for me in the office, someone to split their lunch when I was too frazzled and disorganized to have made one for myself. I knew before she did that she was gonna be a great mommy to Baby D. She was so mothering (in a good way) to me as we suffered through psych licensure exams and all sorts of work conundrums.
We are leaving an agency that hosted hotpot parties, sushi parties, ice cream making afternoons (all we do is eat, I guess), and countless times we sought sanity by taking a walk and getting coffee/tapioca drink/noodles/bakery stuff…
Farewell Porteguese tarts of Chinatown from the bakery Napoleon! (how’s that for a culturally confused pastry?)
O.S. and I are trying to shift into a healthier place away from the pig-carcass in the street, spit and god knows what else of Chinatown. It’s time to actually spend more quality time with the people we adore rather than just toil in their proximity.
Potlucks are awesome-personally revealing, and at ACMHS, a serious culinary masterpiece. Everything Cantonese, Taiwanese, Mien, Vietnamese, Japanese, Cambodian, Pilipino, and good ‘ol American thrown in too. Have some Burmese tea salad with your Mien noodle and Mai’s famous home made Meyer lemons salad dressing atop organic greens. That goes well with the Cambodian chicken, Japanese dessert and Pad thai. How about some coffee jell-o, pork buns, water spinach, curry eggplant, BBQ pork, lemon chicken, pea sprouts, Japanese red bean sticky rice and Joyce’s mushrooms? Hello Kitty cookies from Hong Kong is served with Berkeley lemon bars. And - the ever present Chinese cake. White fluff frosting and fruits on a super light sponge.
A friend who had also left ACMHS wrote to me, "Yes, it is hard to leave the ACMHS village…" It is. A place where random treats appear on one’s desk for no reason. Where no one would think of going on vacation without doling out little gifts or yummies to one another immediately upon return. Where they put up with my bumbles & stumbles as I learned gawkily how to sprout from an intern, to a coordinator, to finally be a supervisor. Where we all pretty much know one another’s business in the rumor mill but pretty much let it be without judgment. And where one can get fine culinary advice & dine/shop out tips from all corners of the world.
I learned here the solid grounding in my heart that lets my do this work even as I go froward. I learned here how few difference there were between us all, no matter how disparate our backgrounds. I was privileged to serve refugees, crime victims, those with psychosis, "perps", clients who were 4 and held my hand, and clients who were 92 and made me laugh. Those who had seen or done things that made my eyebrows raise and heart ache. I learned the truth which is that we are all, all of these things at different time. I am an intern, a client, a family member, a supervisor, a community member, a victim and a perp. To serve one is to serve us all, to help yourself. My students and clients have given me more wisdom that I could have ever imagined, As much as my mentors, though in a different manner.
These people helped me grow up, and more importantly, they helped me grow Deep. Gave me a fortitude to do this kind of work.
They made me a leader, which is more faith in me than I can ever repay. (surely they were hard up for supervisors) And I learned that to lead well, I need to lose my ego, and accept that we are in this together, and it’s by not getting a fat ‘ol head that one manages to lead where the laypeople are at.
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