Yes! Wednesday - First day (2sept2015)

ok cool. never had a blog before. first thought best thought.

Quick spiel about me: Hi, I'm Sayuri, I'm a friend/part-time student of Brightworks. Currently, I am also a junior at Alameda Community Learning Center the rest of the time in order to prepare for college. I like making music and connecting with people. This year at Brightworks, I am an active member of Violet Band, the high school class, where we are accompanied by our fearless and sensational collaborator Amanda (bwxviolet.blogspot.com), and her noble canine Apollo the pug. Our arcs for the year are Rock, Seed, Human.

Started Brightworks as normal with morning circle, introducing names, bonding with activities, meditating, and then... the air surging with excitement as everyone scampered off to their bandspaces for a phenomenal first day

We busied ourselves by getting acquainted, oriented, and putting finishing touches on the bandspace, making it pretty. By the end of the week, the Violet bandspace had a cafe area, a new curtain for the south window, a cozy couch nook under the stairs (complete with blue fairy lights), a decent sound system (yay) and last but not least a clean whiteboard!

Upon the end of afternoon circle, Amanda sent us home with an objective: think about the year ahead, what standards shall we hold each other to? Formulate a coexistence plan. (Come up with a good list of rules individually so we may congregate thursday and have a list of sensible, meaningful guidelines for our time together.)

Here are the rules I came up with:

• be honest (within reason) 
• keep appointments and promises; be a man/woman/nonbinary of your word
• think before you speak
• forgive
• do your best, and practice self-care (treat yo’self! it’s ok to feel overwhelmed)
• [don’t talk trash] [you’re not cool if you're not nice] [except amanda]
• ask for help when you need it
• let go of learned fears and fear tactics. (you are not your insecurities, be mindful of the effects of peer pressure, and the influence and emotional responsibility you carry for other people)
• ask questions, whether for gaining information for an ulterior motive or just for curiosity’s sake. participate. actively listen.
• know your limits. you’re not obligated to commit to everything everyone asks of you, but if you do commit, follow through. 
• hydrate

Unconventional or silly as some of them may sound, I knew that since I would have to go to "real school" while they convened at Brightworks, my only bit of input would have been to include rules that I felt were most important to me, the things I struggle with most. Our complete official list of rules can be found on Amanda's blog.

Being at Brightworks is a kind of stimulating euphoria unparalleled at any other place in the world. I can't wait for what's to come up next week.

let's do this.