BOO to YOU!

I love Halloween! I have never devoted so much time to the holiday but this year I felt that the entire month of October was all about Halloween.

A couple weeks ago I started the celebrations by going to a haunted house in the suburbs. It’s the infamous Jay Cees, which operates several top-notch haunted houses in the Chicago area.
Characters wove in and out of those waiting in line, revving their chain saws when least expected and sliding on the ground at your feet. I screamed a couple times, I must admit, but before I knew it I was asking them for pictures and even for hugs! It was great.

But the best Halloween activity was with Chicago Semester. Halloween fell on a Wednesday, which is the day that students have class. We were told there would be a costume contest, and while I didn’t put too much into a costume some of my friends did. My roommate, Stephanie, went as Pippy Long Stocking and my buddy, Nate, floored everyone with his costume. He had the crazy idea to dress up as one of the workers from our apartment building! He needed help with the wardrobe and makeup and we were happy to assist. Nate calmly took the CTA to class at 8 o’clock in the morning looking absolutely monstrous! His lipstick didn’t smudge all day and he easily won our costume contest. It was exciting knowing that I had contributed to his greatness.

I have had some new and invigorating opportunities through my internship recently. In my mid-term evaluation my supervisor inquired more about my specific goals and interests. She quickly realized that she could provide me some valuable experience in those areas. I have discovered that I would like to learn more about working with ex-offenders as they re-enter society. Toni, who works in the Employment Resource Center around the corner from our services, invited me to accompany her to a board meeting discussing housing discrimination and the recently released. There were numerous speakers and representatives of various agencies that work with the population and several ex-offenders were there to speak on their experience. I learned that in order for an individual with a criminal history to be eligible for public housing they must have a clean record in the last three years. For instance, if someone was released from prison and was then on probation for three years they could not apply for public housing for six years, three years after their probationary period ended! That’s crazy! I am so grateful that my Chicago Semester internship has allowed me to take advantage of such opportunities.