# data[].attributes.headline
Marcol Rodriguez - Cultivating the Cultivators

# data[].attributes.subject
Marcol Rodriguez - Cultivating the Cultivators

# data[].attributes.body
I had dreamed of the day I would become a teacher; I was practically born for it. My first teaching  job was right in my living room; I was about 10 years old, my niece Franchesca was probably in first grade. Day after day I spent my afternoons sitting at the plastic kiddie  table in the middle of the noise of 🤬 Rey balcony of our second story apartment. 🤬 Rey,  one of the most named slums named in songs, and not for any good reason. I was my niece’s personal tutor, the one who taught her how to read before her classmates even knew their vowels. Becoming a teacher has been part of my destiny.

I always thought that I would feel the most fulfilled by sitting in front of young minds every day. My assumptions were correct; I have loved every single moment of appreciation, struggle, growth, and discomfort within my career. Yet, there is something I have discovered that I love more; that is teaching adults. Helping cultivate the minds of the cultivators of our next generations brings me a sense of comfort. Knowing that the seed I plant will blossom and multiply exponentially is what drives me to pursue a career as an educational coach.

# data[].attributes.body
A few springs ago, I designed an after-school class for kindergarteners. We read books, made puppets out of plates and cups, drew the structure of stories with markers, and played generative games. One afternoon, I introduced ‘Pass-a-word Story,’ a game in which kids cobble a tale together word by word. They loved the activity’s rapid-fire speed — and of course, adding random words to make each other laugh. After a few rounds, one talkative girl asked me, “These stories are silly. But how can we make them funny?” I surprised myself by replying, “Well, right now, the stories are fun and silly. But to be funny, it has to make some kind of sense. If you want it to be really funny, you have to listen to each other. The next word should feel natural coming after the one before it.”  To my delight, they got this concept right away, and began working together instead of each trying to say the most hilarious word. That afternoon, the class formed rich, coherent, and deeply funny stories.

# data[].attributes.body
During the pandemic and schools going virtual, many schools have advised their students to do school work in a "quiet, distraction free space." To this, me and many students laugh because "quiet" and "distraction-free" is not how my house runs. With my family home full time now, it is difficult to find a space where I can work diligently and be undisturbed.

# data[].attributes.headline
When school was moved to online instruction, I didn’t realize that it would incompass me becoming a teacher to my younger siblings. In the blink of an eye, I was up at eight in the morning to wake up my first sibling for his everyday class meeting. Running on a few hours of sleep, I would set up my second sibling’s laptop while they were getting ready. I would attempt to make breakfast, while carrying my laptop in one hand ready for my live sessions to also start. Camera off and audio muted, my peers would fortunately not hear me hustling around the kitchen to make something for my younger brothers. During my live classes, I would sit next to my second sibling to make sure he was paying attention. His autism often got in his way of focusing and only under my guidance would my brother participate. One eye on my brother and the other eye on my teacher. This was my new hectic routine.

# data[].attributes.subject
When school was moved to online instruction, I didn’t realize that it would incompass me becoming a teacher to my younger siblings. In the blink of an eye, I was up at eight in the morning to wake up my first sibling for his everyday class meeting. Running on a few hours of sleep, I would set up my second sibling’s laptop while they were getting ready. I would attempt to make breakfast, while carrying my laptop in one hand ready for my live sessions to also start. Camera off and audio muted, my peers would fortunately not hear me hustling around the kitchen to make something for my younger brothers. During my live classes, I would sit next to my second sibling to make sure he was paying attention. His autism often got in his way of focusing and only under my guidance would my brother participate. One eye on my brother and the other eye on my teacher. This was my new hectic routine.

# data[].attributes.body
 We see each picture in many different perspectives but within all those perspectives it’s just another way of seeing beauty. They allow people to show the things they feel, the things they’re going through, and the things they want to say without actually saying it at all. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a word can be worth a thousand pictures.

# data[].attributes.body
It feels like there are two kinds of people in this world, the triangles: the kind that are excellent at one thing. And the ones that are not particularly good at certain specific places but can get around to doing all kinds of things, they are like a circle, whether they are a small or large circle depends on them.

# data[].attributes.body
At 13, I realized, my life in America is only as great as I let it be, it was my life and mine to live it. It was time to regain control. I came to the conclusion that the thing America lacked was my culture. I wasn’t going to be comfortable in America unless I made it to be my America. I now walk to school with my ethnic music blasting in my ear, and my flag flowing behind me like a superhero’s cape.

# data[].attributes.body
Covid-19 struck at the best time for a downfall.  In a battle with seasonal depression covid-19 decided to hand me more obstacles than I would've ever thought.  My school struggled with the correct actions to take which led to teachers handing out long assignments and checking for completion instead of the work quality.  Many of my older family members with underlying illnesses contracted the virus which led to a distraction in my mental state.  My mom lost her job and didn't know if she was ever going to get it back. I felt like I was in a deep hole with no rope to pull me out.

# data[].attributes.body
Most of my memories from my summers in the Dominican Republic consisted of power outages. The infrastructure on the island was never great, so, everyday, the power would go out for hours at a time, leaving my cousins and I looking for something to do. One moment we would be playing GTA: San Andreas, and in the next the lights would flicker and the TV would go black. With nothing else to do, we turned to innovation.

We would race to see who could build the better dam out of mud and rocks to keep the rain out. We would roll socks into a ball, wrap them up in tape, and hit them with poles to play baseball without any of the equipment. We would lay a worn out sheet of plywood across our knees while sitting and use it as a table to play cards, then argue about the actual rules of the game. Even though these were all minor things we did to keep ourselves entertained, they introduced me to engineering.

# data[].attributes.body
Most of my memories from my summers in the Dominican Republic consisted of power outages. The infrastructure on the island was never great, so, everyday, the power would go out for hours at a time, leaving my cousins and I looking for something to do. One moment we would be playing GTA: San Andreas, and in the next the lights would flicker and the TV would go black. With nothing else to do, we turned to innovation. 
	We would race to see who could build the better dam out of mud and rocks to keep the rain out. We would roll socks into a ball, wrap them up in tape, and hit them with poles to play baseball without any of the equipment. We would lay a worn out sheet of plywood across our knees while sitting and use it as a table to play cards, then argue about the actual rules of the game. Even though these were all minor things we did to keep ourselves entertained, they introduced me to engineering.

# data[].attributes.body
It wasn’t until I started talking to my Program Manager at SEO that I realized how I truly felt about school. I loved the idea of school and learning about History and English. However, my dad walking into my room every morning lecturing me while attempting to pull me out of bed was the issue. It had begun with a comparison with other kids who had lived in my neighborhood, then it shifted to my siblings' educational status and their ability to go to school on time. I had already felt bad enough that I was the standard disappointment in the family, but it got to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. The final card he had used to force me into his vision of a perfect daughter was guilt-tripping me into thinking I was as bad as they come. 

# data[].attributes.body
Perfection.

The moment I opened my bookshelves, relief washed over me. The kind of relief that helps pace your heartbeat, the kind of relief that seems to guide your blood cells throughout your vein, the kind of relief that plays a tone with a decrease in tempo as you gaze from the left to right, and that’s the kind of relief I check for every hour and day.

# data[].attributes.body
And soon the entire city was on lock down. During this time  school went on remotely. Only essential workers were allowed out.  Thus being the oldest I was left to do babysitting duties to my baby sister. Prior to the pandemic I would care for my siblings only after I finished school.

# data[].attributes.body
Also let me meet people who I would call family because of the experience we went through as a team. Which inevitably let me learn to cherish family even more, to look at family as a strength. In fact my reason for enjoying basketball so much is that it built a foundation for my personality. As I grew in the sport it showed me basketball is so much bigger than someone putting a ball in the basket. It's about building infrastructures upon infrastructures in order to create a community of people together and in harmony.

# data[].attributes.body
The world was hit with a calamity no one expected. People went from licking the cheeto dust off their fingers in the streets  to fearing walking outside. In a matter of days many peoples' worlds went in a 360 change. I recall the day school was cancelled for 2 weeks in March as a high school junior, excited to have days off but a part of me scared. The first few days went by fast, but things started to take a toll when the days of having to stay home grew longer and longer.