How I love my job..

So I've officially worked for Dialogue Direct/Children International for 2 weeks. And it's been an AMAZING 2 weeks. I can't even believe how much I've grown, or at least how much I think I've grown. I know one thing for sure, I will be the most friendly person ever by the end of the summer! Not that I was ever shy in the first place, but I have learned to be fearless; I still have a long way to go, but I have definitely made some progress.
Dealing with so much rejection is hard. But I've learned to be positive about it. The people that won't stop don't know what they're missing out on. And the people who say no are the same way. The hardest thing to remember is the fact that the people I talk to don't know me enough for their responses to be personal towards me. Even though I treat everyone like a best friend, they aren't necessarily opening themselves up like I am. Oftentimes, they say no when they really want to say yes, but they build this wall and tell themselves they can't make such a spur of the moment decision. Danny and Tawny always ask people how long they have known about poverty. Then we tell people that we talk and talk about doing something about poverty, but we never ACTUALLY do anything about it. This sponsorship is the perfect way to take action. One person isn't going to change the world, but their sponsorship does change that child's world, and they become the world to that child. It's such a beautiful relationship too!
Last Friday I was struggling. I needed 4 to make staff so I could keep my job and I had 3 by 6 o'clock. I decided to stay out a little more and Zach stayed with me to help me out. I had a guy almost convinced, but he wasn't taking it so I let him walk away. Zach grabbed him and basically told him straight up that I needed one more sponsorship to make staff that day, and if he couldn't do it for  the child, could he do it for me? I didn't know Zach was telling him that at all, and he came over and signed up with me. Talk about answers to prayers. On Monday I got my first 3 in a day and then kept a consistent 2 average from Tuesday through Friday. I wish I could have just gotten my 3 average right away, but I did improve a TON over just a week, so I can be grateful for that. Next week will be even better.
Some of my sign ups were pretty awesome! I am most successful at PSU and on the Starbucks corner at Pioneer Place. I'm not sure why, but I guess I'm just most comfortable those places. I need to work on keeping my mojo when I move to a different location. I signed up a guy who had just applied for the job with us which was pretty cool, because we basically made sure he'd get the job. It was pretty awesome! Clarke Leeland was a cool guy. I hope he gets it!  Another guy came back and signed up after I suggested he do it as a gift to his wife. Another one wanted to do it for his daughter so she could have a pen-pal. Another guy told me all about how much money he had to throw around, so He had no excuses and just did it. One guy wanted to go into the store and think about it but I made him fill out the form anyways and told him if he decided not to do it he could just call and cancel, but I guaranteed him he wouldn't want to cancel it; so he did it and came back out of the store and was like, "I can spend $500 on clothes but I can't spend $20 on a kid? Thank you for making me fill it out. I'm excited to see who my kid is!" It was so great :). Another guy I met had just started working for the timbers and he had like 3 college degrees but he had been diagnosed with some sickness and had to quit med school. He was just so grateful for life and really wanted to help everyone he got stopped by. He was so cool! And such a nice guy. He had been addicted to hardcore drugs and all kinds of things, but he had gotten his life together and was doing a LOT better.
 On Friday I had a rough day after a crazy lady started yelling at me and telling me how terrible I was. I got really shaken up and I broke down and called Danny so I could cool down. He walked around with me for awhile and gave me a pep talk that really helped. I pretty much forgot about it after that. It took me all the way til the last 2 hours to get my 2 though, which was frustrating. The last one I got was this guy who I had talked to earlier who was visiting from California because his friend was graduating. There were a bunch of them in a huge group and they were all just harassing me for standing there, So I just let them go. But they came back and wanted to talk to me, and I had like 3 minutes before I had to go back to the office. So I just told them straight up that I needed one more sponsorship today and I was off in 2 minutes. So the one guy convinced his friend to do it. He was like "Okay, I'll do it if you come hang out with us at the bars this weekend," all the sudden I got kinda scared, but then I told them I wasn't 21 yet, so that wasn't going to work. Oh darn. But he did it anyways and I gave him a big hug and it was all good because I at least got my 2 average for the week!
I've been the most successful with men, and especially ones who are in their mid 20's. I stop everyone I meet, but for some reason I have a harder time convincing girls and women. My goal in the next few weeks is to learn how to approach women effectively without feeling self-conscious. I know I'm just limiting myself because I don't think I can convince them, so I need to change that attitude and ask for help and become more versatile in my dialogue and approach.
I met a guy on Friday who had just gotten out of prison. At first I was a little nervous, but he was such a cool guy. He had been locked up for about 5 years, and he talked about how he'd been a gang member and had been really addicted to drugs and alcohol, but he cleaned himself up and no longer had any desire to do those things. He and a buddy of his were going to open up a tattoo parlor and he was planning on doing gang outreach so he could help kids who were going through the same things he had. I love talking to people like that because they just want to help people so much. They have such big hearts and it's amazing. I met another guy who had just finished alcohol rehab and he was just so happy about being sober. Another guy was a devoted Christian, but he'd been in and out of gangs in his earlier life and had been strangled, shot, stabbed, beaten and so many things. He was just so devoted to Jesus and was so grateful for his family and the people around him. There are some amazing people that have been through some really rough things. Even though I didn't sign very many of these people up to sponsor kids, I have grown so much by just meeting them and having such short and meaningful conversations.
There are some really sad people I have met. There are a lot of homeless people that just devastate me. There are a few schizophrenics who will talk to me a lot. One is convinced that he is 36, works at the airport and is studying Marketing at PSU. He looks about 67 or 68. He definitely looks and acts old, but i suppose he could have been addicted to drugs or something that has made him age a lot more, but he did not seem very lucid at all. There are a lot of people that aren't lucid. It's really sad to me. There are also a lot of kids who are homeless just because they don't want to do anything. They will come sit on the corner with us and hassle us, which is really annoying, but we just move.
There are some AMAZING musicians who regularly play around where were at. There's a guy with an electric cello and he just improvises all day long and it's incredible. I just want to stare at him sometimes.
Basically, I love my job. It is teaching me so much. I love my co-workers too- we all have a lot in common and they are so nice and fun to be around. They all smoke and drink, but they know I don't and they all respect me a lot which I really appreciate. I don't feel awkward around them at all so it's good. This job makes me so happy, and even though it's exhausting, I know its what I'm supposed to be doing this summer.